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10 ¦ AUGUST 10, 2020 NEWS

¦ From TIKTOK’S on PAGE 9 ing more than half a dozen class
“And,” the panel wrote in its actions against TikTok.
order, “although common de- Pressed on the planned me-
fendants ByteDance, Inc., and diation, Rhow, a principal at Los
TikTok, Inc., are headquartered Angeles-based Bird, Marella,
in California, they support selec- Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks,
tion of the Northern District of As the political debate Lincenberg & Rhow, told the

Illinois, as do multiple plaintiffs.” deepens over who should MDL panel that “nothing has
That’s because the Illinois own TikTok, the U.S. Judicial changed” since similar talks failed
Biometric Privacy Act, named back in April.
in several of the lawsuits, which Panel on Multidistrict He drew distinctions from the
provides statutory damages be- Illinois cases, noting that TikTok’s
tween $1,000 and $5,000 per Litigation sent nearly 20 alleged privacy violations involve a
violation, “dwarfs anything privacy class actions against class that includes more than just
else,” said TikTok attorney minors. The cases in California in-
Tony Weibell, a partner at Wil- the Chinese-based media volve state computer and privacy
son Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati app to Illinois, which has laws, and seek injunctive relief.
one of the strictest laws
protecting biometric data.

in Palo Alto, California, at the “There’s a whole set of class
MDL panel’s hearing, held vir-
tually, on July 30. members around the country
whose voices need to be heard in
“The statutory damages avail- a centralized fashion,” he said at
able under BIPA make that claim
far more important than any oth- the hearing.
In 2017, TikTok reached a $5.7
er claim in this case,” he told the million settlement with the Federal Trade Com-
MDL panel. “It’ll be very important for that claim to mission over reported violations of the Children’s
be decided and adjudicated properly.” Online Privacy Act. It also paid $1.1 million to re-
TikTok, meanwhile, has an Aug. 13 mediation solve a December lawsuit in the Northern District
scheduled to resolve the lawsuits, according to Ka- of Illinois.
trina Carroll, of Carlson Lynch in Chicago, at the Elizabeth Fegan, of Fegan Scott, said the future
MDL panel’s hearing last week. ownership of TikTok should have little impact on the
But not everyone is participating in settlement cases, which she insisted should end up before U.S.
discussions. Another camp of plaintiffs lawyers had District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel of the Southern
pushed for the cases to go before U.S. District Judge District of Illinois.
Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California,
who, last month, appointed plaintiffs attorney Ekwan “The cases are still primarily focused on the pro-
Rhow as chairperson of an executive committee lead- tection of Illinois consumers and their children
under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy
Act,” she wrote in an email. “Whether TikTok is
sold will not affect the fact that the gravamen of the
Visit claims arises in Illinois and thus the cases should be
transferred to Illinois so that the Illinois BIPA claims
can be adjudicated by an Illinois court.”
ctlawtribune.com ¦
PHONE: 860-757-6659
Amanda Bronstad is the ALM staff reporter cov-
ering class actions and mass torts nationwide.

She writes the email dispatch Critical Mass. She

is based in Los Angeles.

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