Judge Denies as Moot Plaintiff's Motion to Remand BIPA Case vs. AWS

U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo for Northern Illinois in Chicago granted (docket 1:22-cv-06779) Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction Wednesday in a privacy case alleging Amazon violated the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act. Plaintiff Cynthia Redd failed to make a prima facie showing of personal jurisdiction, making her not entitled to the limited jurisdictional discovery she requested, said Bucklo, denying Redd’s motion to remand “as moot.”

Redd’s lawsuit originated in Cook County Circuit Court and Amazon removed the case to the district court in December. The complaint alleges Redd had to scan her facial geometry on the Wonolo temporary job app, hosted by AWS, every time she accepted a job through Wonolo “so that AWS and Wonolo could detect, identify and/or verify Plaintiff’s identity for purposes of tracking her time worked.” AWS scanned, collected, possessed and used her facial geometry through hosting the Wonolo worker database, she said.

In her March reply to remand the case back to the circuit court (see 2303300017), Redd said it was the burden of AWS to establish subject-matter jurisdiction in the district court, including demonstrating Redd’s Article III standing, saying she fails to meet the injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing.

AWS argued for dismissal of Redd’s complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction, and when confronted with concurrent motions implicating both subject-matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction, a federal court “can decide for itself in which order to address them,” Bucklo said. Because a ruling for AWS on personal jurisdiction grounds “would obviate the need to consider the remand motion entirely,” Bucklo chose to resolve the Rule 12(b)(2) motion first, she said.

Aside from registering to do business in Illinois, the only alleged link between AWS and Illinois runs through Wonolo, Bucklo said. But contacts between third parties like Wonolo and the forum “do not satisfy” the requirements for personal jurisdiction, she said. AWS provided its Rekognition technology to Wonolo, which used it in Illinois, but “that is the type of ‘random, fortuitous, or attenuated’ contact that the Supreme Court has cautioned cannot give rise to personal jurisdiction,” she said.

Though a plaintiff doesn’t have to plead facts alleging personal jurisdiction, once a defendant challenges the existence of personal jurisdiction, “the plaintiff bears the burden of establishing it,” the judge said. It's not enough that Redd was affected by AWS’ conduct in Illinois because “the plaintiff cannot be the only link between the defendant and the forum,” she said.