The Home Depot facial recognition lawsuit was a proposed class action filed in August 2025 by a Chicago-area customer who claimed the retailer scanned shoppers’ faces at self-checkout kiosks in Illinois without their consent, in violation of the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. The plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the case about three months later without any ruling on the merits, and as of mid-2026 it has not been refiled.
What the Plaintiff Claimed Home Depot Did
Benjamin Jankowski filed the complaint on August 1, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, docketed as Jankowski v. The Home Depot, Inc., No. 1:25-cv-09144.1Top Class Actions. Home Depot Sued for Allegedly Using Facial Recognition at Self-Checkout Kiosks Without Consent According to the complaint, Jankowski was checking out at an Illinois Home Depot when a green box appeared around his face on the kiosk screen, which he took as a sign that the system was capturing his facial features.2Retail Customer Experience. Chicago Man Sues Home Depot Over Facial Recognition at Self-Checkout
The complaint alleged that Home Depot had equipped its Illinois stores with cameras and facial recognition systems using “computer vision” to capture customers’ facial geometry, and that the company introduced and expanded this technology in 2024 as an anti-theft measure.3PetaPixel. Home Depot Sued for Secretly Using Facial Recognition Technology on Self-Checkout Cameras The complaint also alleged deployment in parking lots and other store facilities.4Case Filings Alert. Jankowski v. The Home Depot, Inc., Complaint
Jankowski brought the suit on behalf of himself and a proposed class of customers whose facial geometry had been collected at any of Home Depot’s 76 Illinois locations. The complaint sought $5,000 for each alleged violation.2Retail Customer Experience. Chicago Man Sues Home Depot Over Facial Recognition at Self-Checkout
Home Depot has publicly discussed heavy investment in in-store technology without confirming facial recognition specifically. At a June 2023 investor conference, the company announced plans to roll out “computer vision” across all stores, initially described by an executive as a way to photograph shelves and track inventory.5The Home Depot. Investor and Analyst Conference Transcript In May 2024, the company’s vice president of asset protection said “a significant piece” of Home Depot’s technology investment was going into video capabilities, including cameras with license plate recognition and analytics. He did not mention facial recognition.6Retail Brew. How Fighting Shrink Became a Financial Priority for the Home Depot
The BIPA Rules Home Depot Allegedly Broke
The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act requires any private company collecting biometric data, including facial geometry, to first inform the person in writing that the data is being collected, explain the purpose and retention period, and obtain a written release. Companies must also publish a written policy describing when and how the biometric data will be destroyed.7Illinois General Assembly. Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14
Jankowski’s complaint accused Home Depot of failing on each of those requirements. It alleged the company captured facial geometry without notifying customers or obtaining written consent, had no publicly available policy explaining how long it would keep the data or when it would be destroyed, and disclosed customers’ biometric information to service providers, law enforcement, and corporate affiliates without authorization. The complaint characterized the alleged violations as intentional or reckless, which under BIPA would entitle each affected person to up to $5,000 in liquidated damages per violation, plus attorneys’ fees.4Case Filings Alert. Jankowski v. The Home Depot, Inc., Complaint
Why the Case Was Dismissed
Jankowski filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on October 30, 2025, and Judge April M. Perry granted it the following day. Because the dismissal was without prejudice, the case was not decided on its merits, and the plaintiff retains the ability to refile.8Bloomberg Law. Home Depot Customer Drops Suit Over Self-Checkout Facial Scan
Neither Jankowski nor Home Depot publicly explained the dismissal, and neither responded to press questions about it.8Bloomberg Law. Home Depot Customer Drops Suit Over Self-Checkout Facial Scan Possible reasons noted in legal commentary include private settlement discussions, evidentiary or discovery difficulties, and a strategic decision to refile later.9Data Privacy and Security Insider. Home Depot Facial Scan Lawsuit Voluntarily Dismissed As of mid-2026, no refiled case has appeared on the docket.
An Earlier BIPA Case Against Home Depot
Jankowski’s suit was not the first Illinois biometric case against the retailer. In September 2019, Brunson et al. v. The Home Depot, Inc., No. 1:19-cv-03970, was filed in the same federal court. That complaint alleged Home Depot used facial recognition software linked to store security cameras to create “faceprints” and track customer movements within and across its 76 Illinois stores to flag conduct the company deemed suspicious. Like the 2025 case, the 2019 lawsuit alleged Home Depot failed to obtain consent, disclose its data practices, or publish a retention policy.10ClassAction.org. Class Action Claims Home Depot Facial Recognition Security Cameras Violate Illinois Privacy Law
What a Refiled Case Would Be Worth Now
If Jankowski or another plaintiff refiles similar claims, the damages picture is different from what it was even a year earlier. For a long time, the largest question in BIPA litigation was whether every individual scan counted as its own violation. In 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in Cothron v. White Castle System, Inc. that each scan was a separate violation, which produced the possibility of astronomical liability. White Castle faced arguments that its exposure could reach $17 billion for repeated employee fingerprint scans.11Commercial Litigation Update. Biometric Backlash: The Rising Wave of Litigation Under BIPA and Beyond
Illinois lawmakers responded. Governor J.B. Pritzker signed SB 2979 into law on August 2, 2024, amending BIPA so that collecting or disclosing the same biometric data from the same person using the same method counts as a single violation, however many times it happens. The amendment also confirmed that electronic signatures satisfy BIPA’s written consent requirement.12American Bar Association. How Will Proposed Amendments to Illinois BIPA Affect the Use of Biometric Data
Whether the amendment reached pending cases stayed unsettled until April 2026, when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Clay v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. that it does. The court classified the change as remedial rather than substantive, which under Illinois law means it applies to all pending cases. Plaintiffs in BIPA class actions filed before August 2024 are now limited to a single recovery per person rather than per-scan damages. Chief Judge Michael Brennan noted that the reduced exposure might even affect whether some federal BIPA class actions still meet the amount-in-controversy threshold for federal jurisdiction.13FindLaw. Clay v. Union Pacific Railroad Company
For any refiled Home Depot case, that means damages would be capped at one recovery per affected customer. Multiplied across 76 stores’ worth of Illinois shoppers, the potential exposure remains substantial, but it is a fraction of what a per-scan calculation could have produced.
Other Retailers Facing Similar Claims
Home Depot is not alone in facing biometric-privacy suits from shoppers. Kohl’s was sued in 2022 in the Northern District of Illinois over allegations it used Clearview AI software to match customer biometric data against a database. MAC Cosmetics, JCPenney, and 7-Eleven have all been named in BIPA class actions tied to in-store biometric data collection.14Top Class Actions. Kohl’s Class Action Alleges Retailer Obtains Customer Biometric Data Without Consent
Retailers have generally described these technologies as loss-prevention tools. Privacy advocates argue that shoppers walking into a hardware store have no reasonable expectation their faces are being scanned and stored, and that biometric data carries a unique risk because it cannot be changed if compromised. Illinois remains the central legal battleground for that dispute because BIPA lets individuals sue directly, without proving concrete harm beyond the violation itself, a principle the Illinois Supreme Court confirmed in its 2019 Rosenbach v. Six Flags decision.15American Bar Association. Historic Biometric Privacy Settlement