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Facebook Settlement Payments Are Finally Going Out to Millions of Users
By Pete Grieve MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
The average payment will be $29.42, according to a Friday court filing from the plaintiffs.
Facebook users just got an exciting notification: Their long-awaited payments from a historic $725 million settlement are finally going out.
Millions of people are set to get their compensation from the Facebook class-action lawsuit after a nearly three-year wait since the announcement of the settlement in December 2022. Earlier this year, payouts were delayed until two appeals were resolved.
But an update posted to the settlement website last week and emails to class members confirmed that payments are on the way.
Angeion, the settlement administrator, will be sending payments in waves over a 75-day period due to the volume of claims, according to an August status report. The Facebook settlement is reportedly the largest class-action settlement ever by number of class members, with over 19 million validated claims.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, denies wrongdoing in the matter but agreed to the settlement to “avoid the costs and risks of a trial,” according to the settlement website.
The class-action lawsuit in question centers around allegations from several plaintiffs that their private Facebook user data was improperly shared with third parties in the high-profile Cambridge Analytica scandal. In 2018, multiple legal complaints were combined into one case that led to the massive privacy settlement — and these payments, finally, seven years later.
Here’s what you need to know about the Facebook settlement if you are a current or former user:
How much are the payments in the Facebook settlement?
The average payment will be $29.42, and the maximum amount is $38.36, according to a Friday court filing from the plaintiffs. The biggest payouts were approved for users who’ve had active accounts since the late 2000s — back when people were still “poking” each other and playing FarmVille.
To receive a maximum payment, the user must have been active for the entire class period from 2007 to 2022 (188 months). The settlement administrator also set a minimum payment of $4.89.
To check whether you’ve been approved for a payment, search for a recent email from the “Facebook User Privacy Settlement Administrator” that include status updates. The email only confirms approval; it will not state your specific payment amount.
When are the Facebook settlement payments going out?
According to the settlement website, the distribution of settlement payments is in process. The payments are going out in “batches” over a period of up to about 10 weeks.
The settlement administrator will issue payments in accordance with the information provided in users’ claim forms. The payment method options included PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, direct deposit, check or a prepaid Mastercard.
Class members are advised to look out for an email notice three to four days before payment.
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Pete Grieve is a New York-based reporter who covers personal finance news. At Money, Pete covers trending stories that affect Americans’ wallets on topics including car buying, insurance, housing, credit cards, retirement and taxes. He studied political science and photography at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. Pete began his career as a professional journalist in 2019. Prior to joining Money, he was a health reporter for Spectrum News in Ohio, where he wrote digital stories and appeared on TV to provide coverage to a statewide audience. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and CNN Politics. Pete received extensive journalism training through Report for America, a nonprofit organization that places reporters in newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities, and he attended the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in 2021. Pete has discussed his reporting in interviews with outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review and WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station). He’s been a panelist at the Chicago Headline Club’s FOIA Fest and he received the Institute on Political Journalism’s $2,500 Award for Excellence in Collegiate Reporting in 2017. An essay he wrote for Grey City magazine was published in a 2020 book, Remembering J. Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence.