Class Action
Vance v. Amazon
Vance, et al. v. Amazon.com, Inc.
Where it stands
Judge James L. Robart granted Amazon summary judgment on October 17, 2022 on extraterritoriality grounds — the relevant conduct occurred in Washington and Georgia, not Illinois. Unjust enrichment claim rejected because Amazon did not use the dataset commercially.
Key ruling
Companion ruling to Vance v. Microsoft, decided the same day; together the two decisions are the leading authority that BIPA does not apply where a defendant's data-handling conduct occurs outside Illinois, a defense now routinely raised by out-of-state AI model developers.
Note on this record
Filing date and plaintiffs' counsel not verified; appellate history not confirmed.The record
- Court
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Case number
- 2:20-cv-01084 (C20-1084JLR)
- Filed
- Filing date not established
- Defendants
- Amazon.com, Inc.
- Plaintiffs
- Putative class of Illinois residents whose Flickr photographs (uploaded 2004–2014) were incorporated into IBM's 'Diversity in Faces' dataset and obtained by Amazon
- Technology at issue
- IBM 'Diversity in Faces' research dataset derived from Flickr Creative Commons images
- Relief sought
- BIPA statutory damages of $1,000 per negligent violation and $5,000 per reckless or intentional violation (740 ILCS 14/20), plus unjust enrichment.
Claims pleaded
Sources (2)
- Amazon and Microsoft Win Summary Judgment in Illinois BIPA Lawsuits Based on ExtraterritorialityPerkins Coie LLP · 2022-10
- Federal judge in Washington dismisses two BIPA-related class action casesWillkie Compliance Concourse · 2022-10-19
This page describes a publicly filed case. This site is not counsel on this matter, nothing here is legal advice, and the allegations described are allegations unless a court has said otherwise.