ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — White Castles in Illinois could soon be facing $17 billion in fines after it was found that the company violated the state’s biometric privacy law.

The Illinois Supreme Court handed down a 4-3 decision on Friday that said the fast-food chain has to face claims that it scanned fingerprints of almost 9,500 employees without their consent, according to Reuters.

The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act gives penalties of $1,000 per violation and $5,000 for intentional violations. It requires companies to get permission from employees before collecting biometric information, such as fingerprints and retinal scans.

The company said that they cannot be sued for every time an employee would use these biometrics to access their computer systems, but instead only for the initial collection of the information.

The court, however, said that White Castle collected the workers’ fingerprints every time they had to use the company’s computer systems.

An appeals court in Chicago has asked the high court to decide on the issue, meaning that it will now go back to that court to apply Friday’s decision.

“Hopefully, today’s decision will encourage employers and other biometric data collectors to finally start taking the law seriously,” said lawyer James Zouras.