Amazon, Starbucks Largely Defeat Lawsuit Over Biometric Scans

A biometric privacy lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc. and Starbucks Corp. was left hanging by a thread after a federal judge dismissed most of the lawsuit’s claims against the former and all claims against the latter.

Suzanne Mallouk, Alfredo R. Perez, Arjun Dhawan, and William Novolt alleged the companies used cashierless palm-scanning technology and biometric camera technology at combined Starbucks-Amazon Go locations in New York City without informing customers their biometric data was being collected, a requirement of the city’s 2021 Biometric Identifier Information Law.

The plaintiffs’ claims against Starbucks failed because they failed to show the coffee purveyor ...