EAST ST. LOUIS – Blackstone Group equity firm of New York City obtained confidential information without consent when it bought Ancestry.com’s DNA business, according to parallel suits in two U.S. district courts.
Blackstone bought the business, Ancestry.com DNA, for $4.7 billion last December.
In Illinois, competition for class action certification resulted.
On June 7, David Gerbie of McGuire Law Firm of Chicago sued Blackstone in Kane County circuit court for local resident Sarah Hogan.
He proposes to certify her as representative of a statewide class.
He alleges that she bought a test kit from Ancestry.com DNA in 2018, sent a saliva sample, and received results.
He alleges that Blackstone sought to capitalize on a massive database by sharing information with affiliates if not other third parties.
“Plaintiff believed that the information she submitted to Ancestry would be kept confidential, private and secure and that it would never be received by third parties like defendant without her written consent,” Gerbie wrote.
He claims Hogan wouldn’t have provided genetic material if she had known Blackstone would compel its disclosure.
Blackstone removed the complaint to Northern Illinois district court on July 8, asserting diverse citizenship as a New York business.
The clerk assigned District Judge Charles Kocoras, who set a status hearing Aug. 19.
On July 27, in St. Clair County, Gregory Shevlin of Bruce Cook’s firm in Belleville filed a similar complaint for local resident Carolyn Bridges.
He named Danny Collins of Cook County as second plaintiff and proposed to certify the pair as representatives of a statewide class.
He alleges that Blackstone disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would package and sell data from companies it acquired.
“Plaintiffs never consented, agreed or gave permission, written or otherwise, to Ancestry to transfer their genetic testing and information derived from genetic testing to a third party,” Shevlin wrote.
He claims the class would include thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands.
On Aug. 12, in the Northern District, Blackstone counsel Martin Roth of Chicago moved to dismiss Hogan’s complaint.
He claims Illinois law prohibits disclosure or release of genetic information, not the acquisition or possession of such information.
He claims Illinois law wouldn’t apply anyway, because Hogan didn’t allege that violations occurred primarily and substantially in Illinois.
He claims Hogan pleaded an unsupported assumption about Blackstone’s plans.
He claims she cited an article from Bloomberg but it didn’t mention Ancestry.
He claims Bloomberg clearly stated that nothing has been sold on behalf of Blackstone’s portfolio companies.
Kocoras canceled his hearing and ordered Hogan to reply by Sept. 3.
She amended her complaint instead, on Sept. 2, mostly for the purpose of converting her claims from state law to federal law.
On that date, Roth removed the St. Clair County suit to district court and moved to transfer it to Northern Illinois for consolidation with Hogan’s suit.
He claims that plaintiffs based both of their complaints on the same allegations and brought them on behalf of a virtually identical class.
He claims that allowing the action to go forward in Southern Illinois would waste judicial resources, inconvenience witnesses, and risk inconsistent rulings.
On Sept. 3, he moved to stay the suit pending a decision on transfer.
The docket on that date showed Shevlin as sole plaintiff counsel, but Roth also served his motions on Gary Klinger and Katrina Carroll of Chicago, Brian Hogan of Bannockburn, and Jonathan Jagher of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
The clerk assigned Chief District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel.