If you have a Facebook account then you could be due a slice of $725 million payout – how to claim
Some Facebook users who received a slice of a $725 million class-action lawsuit settlement are set to receive a second payout.
The lawsuit was finalized in 2023 after a five-year legal battle stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when the now-defunct marketing firm was accused of improperly scraping user data from Facebook and selling it to unapproved third parties to target voters during the 2016 presidential election.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, which has a $1.5 trillion market cap, agreed to settle the lawsuit so that it would not go to court. As part of the settlement, the company denied any liability or wrongdoing.
The first round of payments went out last year, but around $100 million has still gone unpaid and remains in the fund, according to court filings. A California court approved the second round of payments last month.
The remaining money will go to those who filed a claim in the lawsuit by the August 25, 2023, deadline for the first round and cashed the funds.
Those who were eligible included anyone in the United States who used Facebook between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022.
Anyone who was eligible and did not file a claim by the August 2023 deadline will not be privy to the second round of payouts, which will begin on Tuesday, June 9, and continue for the following four weeks.
Facebook users who will receive a second payout will be notified by email three to four days before the funds are issued.
Facebook users who claimed payments in a $725 million class-action lawsuit settlement between plaintiffs and the company may be eligible for a second round of payouts
Meta, Facebook’s parent company with a $1.5 trillion market cap, settled the case in 2022, and it was finalized a year later. The sign outside Meta’s headquarters in California is pictured
The email’s subject line will be: ‘Facebook User Privacy Settlement – Settlement and Second Distribution Status Update.’
Claimants in the first round who are unsure whether they are eligible for the second round of payments can email the settlement administrator at info@facebookuserprivacysettlement.com with their claim ID for more information.
The settlement administrator has estimated that more than 15 million people will receive a slice of the remaining money, which will be around $95 million after $5 million of administrative fees are taken into account, according to court filings.
The settlement website warns that the second-round payouts will be smaller than the first-round median sum of $32.45, ranging instead from $4.67 to $7.32.
Payments will be issued through checks, direct deposit, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or prepaid debit cards, depending on the method selected by users when they filed the initial claim.
The amount claimants earned in the first round and will earn in the second round is based on ‘allocation points,’ which refers to the number of months a user spent on Facebook within the 15-year eligibility period.
A user who spent three years on the website between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, would have 36 ‘allocation points,’ for example.
The class-action lawsuit that led to the nearly three-quarters of a billion dollar settlement began as separate cases that were consolidated in 2018.
The second-round payouts are expected to range from $4.67 to $7.32 and will be issued starting June 9 through the following four weeks
Plaintiffs accused Facebook of sharing user data without consent to third parties such as data brokers, advertisers and app developers.
Meta agreed to settle the lawsuit in December 2022, and it was finalized the next year. The first round of payments was issued yet another two years later in September 2025.
