Kenvue Agrees to $4.7M BIPA Settlement Over Neutrogena Skin-Scanning App

Kenvue Brands LLC has agreed to pay $4.7 million to resolve a class action lawsuit alleging it unlawfully collected and stored the facial geometry of Illinois residents through its Neutrogena Skin360 skin assessment tool, a violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).

The settlement was filed for preliminary court approval in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in the case Melzer v. Kenvue Inc. Kenvue, the consumer health company spun off from Johnson & Johnson in 2023, does not admit liability under the proposed agreement.

The proposed class covers approximately 11,000 Illinois residents who used any version of the Skin360 tool, including Neutrogena Skin360, Neostrata Skin360, and related co-branded variants, via mobile app or web browser at any point between December 9, 2019, and May 5, 2023. Eligible class members who submit a valid claim form are projected to receive hundreds of dollars each from the net settlement fund.

Beyond the monetary relief, the agreement includes significant structural remedies. Kenvue is required to delete all facial images collected from Skin360 assessments during the class period. The company must also develop a written consent form and user notice for the app going forward and adopt a written policy governing the retention and destruction of biometric data.

The lawsuit alleged that Kenvue, acting through its predecessor Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., failed to obtain informed written consent from users before capturing their facial geometry through the app’s AI-driven skin analysis feature, and failed to disclose that biometric data was being collected or how it would be used. Under BIPA, these disclosures are mandatory before any biometric data can be collected.

The case adds to a growing body of BIPA enforcement actions against consumer-facing technology products that collect facial data without adequate disclosure. BIPA allows statutory damages of $1,000 per negligent violation and $5,000 per intentional or reckless violation, making class-scale deployments of facial analysis tools a material legal liability for companies operating in or serving Illinois residents. Comparable cases include YouTube’s $6 million BIPA settlement over its Face Blur feature and Google’s $8.75 million agreement over biometric data collection, while Charlotte Tilbury Beauty reached a $2.9 million settlement over a similar facial geometry scanning tool. Clearview AI settled a landmark BIPA action for $51.8 million in 2025.

Sources: ClassAction.org, Bloomberg Law

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team