Samsung Facing Almost 50,000 Arbitration Claims Over Selfies

A group of nearly 50,000 consumers is asking a federal court to force Samsung Electronics America Inc. to separately arbitrate their claims that the company collected their biometric information in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

Paula Wallrich, Danielle Jones, and the other petitioners claim that Samsung has thwarted their attempts to arbitrate their claims by refusing to pay its share of the arbitration filing fees required by its chosen arbitration administrator, the American Arbitration Association.

“The federal Arbitration Act was never meant to be used by corporations to avoid liability, but that is, in fact, how it’s ...