Verizon Can Fight Biometric Voice ID Lawsuit Before Arbitrator

Two Verizon Communications, Inc. customers will have to make their case that the telecommunications company’s Voice ID program violated an Illinois privacy law to an arbitrator, a federal court ruled.

Whether the arbitration agreement covers Voice ID, and other questions about the pact’s scope, were clearly delegated to an arbitrator, Judge Jorge Alonso of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said May 30. The agreement is enforceable after Alonso found no substantive unconscionability in its terms.

The consumers sued in federal court, saying that Verizon failed to get sufficient consent to use Verizon’s Voice ID—a “biometrics ...