Recently, E.l.f. Cosmetics was accused of violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act with its virtual try-on tool. District Judge Lashonda Hunt has ruled on the viability of a class action lawsuit against e.l.f. Cosmetics in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division. E.l.f. Cosmetics had filed a motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s complaint in favor of arbitration or, alternatively, for failure to state a claim.
Judge Hunt’s ruling granted and denied parts of the motion. The court denied e.l.f.’s attempt to compel arbitration, allowing Count I of the complaint to proceed, along with the plaintiff’s request for heightened damages. This count alleges that E.l.f. collected, captured, or otherwise obtained the plaintiffs’ facial geometry through its Virtual Try-On feature without proper consent, violating section 15(b) of BIPA.
The court concluded that the plaintiff had sufficiently alleged that E.l.f. Cosmetics’ Virtual Try-On tool involved the collection of biometric data, allowing the primary claim and the request for heightened damages to proceed to the next stage of litigation.
Public information shows that the U.S. cosmetics company e.l.f. Beauty was founded in 2004, initially selling cosmetics online at a price of 1 U.S. dollar, which quickly attracted the attention of many consumers. At present, e.l.f. Beauty products are mainly based on various types of color cosmetics, with e.l.f., Naturium, Well People and Keys Soulcare brands, e.l.f. and Naturium two brands also provide skincare. According to e.l.f. beauty’s latest earnings report, the company’s net sales for fiscal year 2024 increased 77% year-over-year to $1.0239 billion.
