It's not too late for you to get a share of Google's $135 million settlement
Next up, the court is expected to finalize Google's $135 million settlement on June 23.
Not too late to file claim for share of $135 million settlement | Image by PhoneArena
U.S. consumers who qualify for a share of the $135 million settlement from Google in a case known as Joseph Taylor, et al. v. Google LLC, have just had a big deadline pass. This past Friday, May 29, was the last day that you could opt out of the settlement. That would make sense only if you plan on spending the money to file your own case against Google.
Who is eligible to file a claim
To be eligible to file a claim, you have to have used an Android phone on a cellular data plan in the U.S. between November 13, 2017 and the date that the settlement receives final court approval, expected to be June 23, 2026. The lawsuit alleges that Google's servers were using cellular data paid for by Android users to receive information transmitted by Android phones even when they were idle.
This was going on in the background even when users were sleeping and their Android devices were completely idle, not in use, not being touched, with all apps closed. The device owners were paying unnecessary data charges for something that benefited Google, not them.
Final court approval will take place on June 2
The settlement was the result of a class action lawsuit filed by a group of plaintiffs in 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. As noted, the hearing to get final court approval of the $135 million settlement will take place on June 23.
Do you file claims for class action settlements?
Class action settlement payouts are notorious for helping the attorneys build wealth while the plaintiffs, impacted by the sheer number of them, receive a token payout. Of course, the actual payout depends on the number of legitimate claims that are accepted by the court. Those receiving a share of the $135 million settlement are expected to end up with less than $100 each while the attorneys' take could range from a total of $33.75 million to $40 million.
The math shows that it's possible that claimants will receive $1.01 each
The truth is, Android users will be lucky if they get more than $5 each. According to the settlement website, 100 million Android users are expected to file a claim. Let's subtract 25% for attorney fees and that leaves $101.3 million left to share among 100 million claims. That works out to a payout of $1.01 for each claimant.
There is one more important deadline coming in the Taylor v. Google class action settlement. | Image by federalcellularclassaction
You must declare how you want to receive your payment
By the way, you can check out the official settlement website by tapping on this link. One of the important things you need to do is fill out the form that tells those taking care of the payouts how you want to receive your money. You can press this link and fill in the missing Notice ID and Confirmation Code. If you don't fill this out, you will still be offered your share of the settlement, but the administrators won't know how to get it to you.
If you haven't received email with these numbers, check your spam filter or get in touch with the Settlement Administrator by calling 1-844-655-4255. Or, you can send an email to Info@FederalCellularClassaction.com.
Those with a successful claim in the Attila Csupo et al. v. Google LLC case could receive $16.75 each
In a separate but similar legal action, last July Google reached a $350 million settlement with California-based Android users. Once again, Google used the cellular data paid for by Android users to send information from their phones to Google servers in the background, even when these phones were idle.
This case is called Attila Csupo et al. v. Google LLC. Attorneys asked the court for 33% of the settlement fund ($115.5 million) plus costs. That would leave $234.5 million to be distributed among the approximately 14 million claimants. Each person with a claim in this case could receive $16.75.
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