T-Mobile Set to Distribute Class-Action Settlement Payments
If you anticipate receiving compensation from T-Mobile, there is reassuring information that your payment will be dispatched soon. According to PCMag, the settlement page for T-Mobile’s data breach case now states, “All court proceedings are now complete. The distribution of settlement payments is expected to begin April 2025.” As long as the payments are distributed on schedule, recipients can anticipate checks being sent out sometime this month.
The payments are associated with a class-action lawsuit stemming from a data breach in August 2021. During this breach, hackers accessed information from tens of millions of current and former T-Mobile customers, such as first and last names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license details. Initially, T-Mobile asserted that only the data of 7.8 million current customers and 40 million former customers had been compromised. However, customers contended that the actual number affected was closer to 76 million. Although T-Mobile did not admit any wrongdoing, they opted to settle the lawsuit with a $350 million payout and allocated an additional $150 million to enhance their customer data security protocols. Consequently, T-Mobile incurred financial losses amounting to half a billion dollars due to this incident.
The exact amount claimants will receive from the settlement may vary based on the time and money spent rectifying their security concerns. Claimants were required to present evidence of their efforts, potentially enabling them to recover expenses incurred as well as an extra $25 per hour as compensation for their time, reaching a potential maximum payout of $25,000. Alternatively, victims had the option to accept a $25 payment to resolve the case entirely. If the victims were residents of California at the time of the incident, their payout could be higher at $100.
Regrettably, the deadline to claim a payment in this case has long passed, ending on January 23, 2023. If you submitted a claim, you should have received communication in October of the previous year. I express my apologies if this information has reached you too late to make a claim as the deadline has now elapsed. However, if you did register a claim before the 2023 deadline, this news may have brightened your day.
Jake Peterson is the Senior Technology Editor at Lifehacker, with a degree in Film & TV from NYU, focusing on writing. He has been assisting individuals with their technology concerns professionally since 2016, starting as a technical specialist at New York’s 5th Avenue Apple Store before becoming a writer for the website Gadget Hacks. Throughout that period, he authored and edited numerous news and how-to articles on iPhones and Android devices, covering product launches from Samsung and Google. In 2021, he joined Lifehacker, addressing everything from the practical applications of AI in daily life to advising on MacBook purchases. His team delves into all things tech, spanning smartphones, computers, gaming consoles, and subscriptions, residing in Connecticut.