After years of anticipation, the payments in a $725 million class action lawsuit against Facebook have finally started to go out, the company in charge of issuing them says.
The social media giant agreed to pay millions of users directly to settle claims it violated people’s privacy by sharing their data with third parties. The settlement was granted final approval in 2023, but payouts have been delayed by objectors and appeals.
But the wait is almost over. Angeion, the company handling the settlement’s administration, who originally said the payments would begin in August, has now confirmed the distribution of payments has begun as of Wednesday, Sept. 3.
Some of the 28 million people who filed claims have started to receive emails that their claim had been approved and payment was coming soon.
If you didn’t receive notice, there’s no need to panic yet. Payments are expected to be issued in batches over the next 10 weeks.
How big will the Facebook settlement payments be per person?
Before we get into any math equations, let’s make one thing clear: This class action lawsuit isn’t going to make you a millionaire. (Unless you’re one of the lawyers in the case. They’re getting $181 million.)
While the size of the fund is inarguably huge, the number of people who filed claims was also really high. Two years ago, Angeion confirmed it had already validated at least 17 million of the 28 million claims filed. That means you’ll have to share the settlement fund with at least 17 million people.
So after legal and administrative fees, what’s left is being divided among all the people whose claims were validated. But it’s not being split equally. There’s a point system in place, with one point awarded for every month you had a Facebook account between May 2007 and December 2022. The more points you have, the bigger your payment.
That makes it hard to say exactly how much any individual will get, but lawyers said in 2023 they estimated the median payment to be $30.
Eight members of the settlement class – the named plaintiffs who represented all Facebook users in the case – will get $15,000 each.
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