Hartford Unit Sues to Dodge Biometric Privacy Insurance Payments

A Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. unit sued a logistics company seeking to avoid paying its legal bills in a proposed class action alleging violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act.

In the underlying BIPA suit, Customized Distribution Services Inc. was accused of collecting employees’ fingerprints for timekeeping purposes and sharing the data with third-party vendors without informing the employees. Hartford Casualty Insurance Co. covered the logistics company under several business liability and umbrella policies, but is seeking to avoid paying its defense costs because the policies exclude privacy violations under state or federal law, the insurer said in a ...