Judge approves $4.25 million payout in Lytx trucker face scan lawsuit

A federal judge approved a multi-million dollar payout to settle a biometric privacy class action lawsuit brought against video safety and telematics company Lytx Inc. on behalf of a class of truck drivers.

On July 25, 2025, an Illinois judge gave final approval to a $4.25 million payout in a class action suit that accused Lytx Inc. of violating the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which was passed in Illinois in 2008, by unlawfully collecting face scans from truckers using inward-facing cameras.

The multi-million dollar payout will settle a suit initially brought by truck driver Joshua Lewis in 2021 against Maverick Transportation and Lytx.

The lawsuit argued that the AI-powered Lytx driver-facing cameras installed in Maverick trucks violated BIPA, which requires companies to obtain written consent before gathering biometric data from an individual, including retina or iris scans, fingerprints, voiceprints, or scans of hand or face geometry.

Similar biometric privacy lawsuits brought by truck drivers Nathaniel Timmons and James Cavanaugh against Gemini Motor Transport were rolled into the Lewis vs. Maverick case.

The class included drivers who operated a vehicle equipped with a Lytx DriveCam Event Recorder between October 12, 2016, and January 1, 2025.

A total of 3,599 drivers joined the class action suit, both from Illinois and out of state.

Lytx has denied any wrongdoing, and the case was settled before going to trial.

“Lytx firmly believes that BIPA does not apply to Lytx’s technology and that these lawsuits are not warranted. As designed, Lytx’s in-vehicle Machine Vision + Artificial Intelligence (“MV+AI”) Alerting System does not collect retina or iris scans, facial geometry, or any type of biometric data, for any purpose whatsoever. Our in-vehicle MV+AI technology detects driving behaviors, not the identity of a driver,” the company said.

Due to concerns over stringent biometric privacy laws in Illinois, Lytx debuted a new geofencing feature in March 2025 that allows trucking fleets to disable in-cab recording while passing through Illinois.

“When enabled, Dynamic Adjust for Illinois Restrictions automatically disables in-cab MV+AI technology when a vehicle enters Illinois and re-enables it upon exit. Lytx’s in-cab MV+AI includes detection of risky driving behaviors such as smoking, distracted driving, cell phone use, inattentiveness, eating and drinking, and not wearing a seat belt. This provides an additional configuration option for fleets driving in Illinois, underscoring Lytx’s commitment to delivering products that empower clients to meet their evolving needs,” the Lytx said.