Facebook Inc. has agreed to pay $550 million to settle claims that a feature on the social media platform runs afoul of an Illinois law regarding how companies collect and store biometric identifiers such as fingerprints and facial recognition data.

Facebook's chief financial officer Dave Wehner announced the proposed deal in an earnings call with financial analysts Wednesday. Plaintiffs lawyer Jay Edelson of Edelson PC, who was helping lead the lawsuits brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, confirmed the amount and said lawyers hope to present the settlement to the court "in the coming weeks."

News of the deal comes after the U.S. Supreme Court declined last month to take up Facebook's appeal in the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last year unanimously affirmed a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California who certified a class in the case to pursue claims that the facial recognition feature called "Tag Suggestions" violated the Illinois law. The feature, launched in 2011, prompts users with possible matches of friends to identify in uploaded pictures.

Donato set a Feb. 6 hearing in the case shortly after the Supreme Court denied Facebook's bid to take the case up last month.

The plaintiffs in the suit were also represented by Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd and Labaton Sucharow. Facebook is represented by counsel from Mayer Brown and Cooley in the case.