Dechert Obtains Landmark Win for AI Leader Prisma Labs

Dechert obtained a precedent setting win – certain to disrupt the landscape of privacy biometric lawsuits nationwide – for AI client Prisma Labs, creator of the Lensa AI photo editing app.  Lensa AI was the # 1 app in both the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace throughout the winter of 2022-2023.  

Relying on Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the plaintiffs’ class action lawsuit sought to represent literally everyone in Illinois who had ever had a photo of themselves uploaded anywhere on the Internet at any point in time, as they claimed Prisma Labs wrongfully scraped nearly every photo ever taken to train its AI machine learning algorithm. While the plaintiffs were seeking billions of dollars in damages on behalf of nearly every resident of Illinois (making it the largest BIPA class action ever proposed), just yesterday, on August 6, 2024, Judge Jorge Alonso in the Northern District of Illinois granted Prisma’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety. 

Specifically, Judge Alonso agreed with Dechert that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate the concrete and particularized injury required to establish Article III standing. As Judge Alonso explained: “At most, [] Plaintiffs’ allegations are ‘consistent with’ the possibility that his photos were scraped …  but, again, where a complaint pleads facts that are 'merely consistent with' a defendant’s liability, it ‘stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of entitlement to relief.” In addition, the court agreed with Dechert that it lacked personal jurisdiction over the plaintiffs given the company’s marketing and conduct wasn’t specifically directed at Illinois.

The Dechert team was led by Brenda Sharton, chair of the cyber, privacy & AI practice, and Benjamin Sadun (partner, Los Angeles), and included Theodore Yale (associate, Philadelphia).  The team argued that the plaintiffs’ alleged claims were conjecture and moved quickly to dismiss for lack of standing and failure to state a claim.

In 2023, the team secured another complete victory on a motion to compel arbitration for Prisma Labs in the Northern District of California in what was one of the first AI-related class action suits filed in the country. In both cases, the plaintiffs alleged the Lensa AI app violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act in how it collects, uses, and stores users’ biometric information.

Case Caption: Brantley et al. v. Prisma Labs, Inc., No.: 1:23-CV-01566 (N.D. Ill.)