For over two years, Respondus has been engaged in a class action lawsuit related to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Faced with the likelihood this litigation would continue on for years, we have decided to enter into a settlement agreement that will ultimately release all BIPA claims against us and our private university customers in Illinois (state agencies, including most public universities, aren’t subject to BIPA).

We reaffirm and stand by our previous statement that we did not violate BIPA, and that at no time did the Respondus Monitor application store biometric information on its servers or elsewhere. We believe we would have prevailed in a summary judgment or jury trial based on the facts of the case.

So, why are we settling? We had to take into consideration the risk tolerance of our insurers, the inconvenience it was creating for some customers, and the time and expense associated with ongoing litigation. Nearly a dozen of our university customers in Illinois have been sued, and while many of the lawsuits have been dismissed by the courts, some linger on. Customers in Illinois who had not been sued have uncertainty about whether they might be next. There have also been claims filed by our university customers that have complicated matters. And while we have spent over $1 million in legal expenses, the case hasn’t yet reached a point where the merits can be examined.

For this and other reasons, it became clear that a settlement would be the best solution for all. The settlement will dispose of the remaining cases against our university customers, clear related claims, cap the risk to our insurers, and remove concerns of future suits.

We want to thank you for being patient with us as we sought to litigate this case. We felt it was a fight worth fighting, but in the end, we chose a path that would provide more certainty to our customers and moderate the risk to our insurers.

Additional information about the settlement will become publicly available once court approval of the settlement occurs.