Does Illinois' BIPA Apply to Virtual Try-On Ads That Scan a Shopper's Face?

Yes — Illinois courts are actively letting Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) claims proceed against brands whose virtual try-on tools scan a shopper's face, though outcomes have split by company. In June 2026, a Cook County court let a BIPA claim against MAC Cosmetics proceed over its virtual try-on tool, while a similar claim against Estée Lauder was dismissed back in January 2024 because the plaintiffs couldn't show the facial scan was tied to their actual identity.

The Pattern Across Recent Virtual Try-On Cases

Several beauty and personal-care brands have faced near-identical BIPA suits over try-on features powered by facial-geometry scanning:

• MAC Cosmetics (filed 2025, ruling June 2026): A Cook County suit alleging the brand's in-store and online virtual try-on tools captured facial geometry without BIPA-required consent was allowed to proceed.
• Shiseido (Powell v. Shiseido): A proposed class action over the YouCam Makeup-powered try-on tool covers Illinois residents whose facial geometry the tool allegedly captured within the past five years.
• Wella (Shores v. Wella Operations, filed December 2022): A still-pending suit challenges Wella's own "Virtual Try-On" website feature on the same theory.
• Estée Lauder (dismissed January 2024): The one clear brand win in this line of cases — the court found the plaintiffs hadn't shown how the scan connected to their actual identity, a gap the MAC Cosmetics plaintiffs apparently closed.

Why the Outcomes Split

BIPA doesn't ban facial scanning outright — it requires written notice and consent before collecting a "biometric identifier," a category defined around things like facial geometry. The Estée Lauder dismissal turned on a proof gap specific to that case, not on a finding that virtual try-on tools are exempt from BIPA. That's why the same legal theory can fail against one brand and survive against another: the outcome tracks what the plaintiff can prove about how the tool stores and can re-identify the scan, not simply whether a scan happened.

What's at Stake Financially

BIPA sets liquidated damages of $1,000 per negligent violation and $5,000 per intentional or reckless violation, or actual damages if higher — though the Illinois Supreme Court's 2023 Cothron ruling held these amounts are discretionary rather than automatic, and a 2024 amendment, upheld as retroactive by the Seventh Circuit in April 2026, now limits a plaintiff to one recoverable violation per method of collection rather than one violation per scan. That amendment meaningfully capped exposure compared with the uncapped "per-scan" theory behind a $228 million jury verdict against BNSF Railway that was later vacated.

What to Check Before Running AR or Virtual Try-On Ads in Illinois

• Confirm your try-on vendor's consent flow captures explicit, written BIPA-compliant consent before any facial geometry is processed, not just a general terms-of-service checkbox.
• Know what your vendor retains and for how long. BIPA also regulates retention and destruction schedules, not just collection consent.
• Don't assume a platform-level disclosure covers you. The brand deploying the tool, not just the AR technology vendor, has been the named defendant in each of these suits.

Bottom Line

Running a virtual try-on ad or AR filter that scans an Illinois shopper's face carries real, current BIPA litigation risk — verify your vendor's consent and retention practices now rather than after a suit is filed, since Illinois courts in 2026 are still letting these claims past the motion-to-dismiss stage.

Source: Cook County court filings and coverage of the MAC Cosmetics virtual try-on BIPA suit, June 2026; coverage of the Estée Lauder BIPA dismissal, January 2024; Seventh Circuit, Clay v. Union Pacific Railroad decision (April 1, 2026), on retroactive application of the 2024 BIPA damages amendment.