Facebook Lawsuit Payout: The Second Round of $725M Settlement Payments Is Hitting Accounts
Facebook (Meta) paid $725 million to settle claims that it shared users' data with third parties without consent. First-round payments averaging $29.43 went out in September 2025. A surprise second round of $4.67 to $7.32 began hitting accounts in June 2026, but only for people who cashed their first payment. New claims closed August 25, 2023.
Status as of
- August 2026: second-round payments are still landing in batches. No third distribution announced.
- June 9, 2026: second distribution began, $4.67 to $7.32 per person, via the payment method chosen at filing.
- September 2025: first-round payments went out, averaging $29.43.
Settlement at a glance
What settlements can you actually claim right now?
The Facebook claim window closed in 2023, so nobody can file for this one anymore. But other privacy settlements just like it are open right now, and filing is free. These are real, active class action settlements on the Payout app today.
YouTube Privacy Settlement
Cash App Referral Texts
Waffle Recall (TreeHouse Foods)
Poppi Soda False Advertising
Krispy Kreme Data Breach
Michael Kors Outlet Pricing
Vending Machine Overcharges
Beef Price-Fixing (Tyson & Cargill)
What the Facebook lawsuit was about
The case, In re Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation, filed in federal court in Northern California, grew out of the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, when it emerged that a political consulting firm had harvested data from tens of millions of Facebook profiles. The lawsuit went further than one firm: it alleged Facebook routinely shared or made accessible users' personal data to third parties without permission and misled people about their privacy controls.
Facebook agreed to pay $725 million in 2022, the largest data privacy class action settlement ever at the time, without admitting wrongdoing. The class covered anyone in the United States who had a Facebook account at any point between May 24, 2007 and December 22, 2022. That's a huge share of the country, which is why roughly 28 million claims were filed, one of the largest claims processes in history.
Final approval came in October 2023, but appeals held up the money for nearly two years. That's why a settlement announced in 2022 didn't start paying anyone until September 2025.
The two payment rounds, explained
The Facebook settlement has paid out twice. Both rounds went only to people who filed by the 2023 deadline.
| Round | When | Amount | Who got it |
|---|---|---|---|
| First payment | September 2025 | $4 to $38, average $29.43 | Everyone with a valid claim, scaled by account tenure |
| Second payment | June 2026, ongoing | $4.67 to $7.32 | Only claimants who cashed or deposited round one |
Round 1: September 2025, average $29.43
First payments went out starting September 2025 to everyone who filed a valid claim by the 2023 deadline. Your amount was based on account tenure: one allocation point for every month you had a Facebook account during the class period. Most people received between roughly $4 and $38, with the average landing at $29.43.
Payments arrived via the method each claimant chose on their claim form: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, direct deposit, or a mailed check.
Round 2: June 2026, $4.67 to $7.32 (the “surprise” payment)
Roughly $100 million from the first round was never collected: checks that expired, electronic payments that were never accepted. Rather than letting that money sit, the court approved a second distribution. Starting the week of June 9, 2026, that leftover money was divided among claimants who cashed or deposited their first payment.
Second-round payments run $4.67 to $7.32. Nobody had to apply or do anything. The money simply arrives via the same payment method as round one. If you got a small deposit from the Facebook settlement recently, this is what it is.
Who gets the second payment?
The second round has exactly two requirements:
- You filed a valid claim by the original August 25, 2023 deadline
- You cashed or deposited your first-round payment before it expired
If your first check expired uncashed, you don't get a second payment. Your first-round money is what funded this round for everyone else. And if you never filed by the 2023 deadline, you're not in the settlement at all.
That $6 deposit is real. Here's how to tell.
A small unexpected deposit labeled something like “Facebook User Privacy Settlement” looks exactly like a scam, and local news stations spent June 2026 reassuring people it isn't. The payments and the emails announcing them come from the court-appointed settlement administrator, and the official website is facebookuserprivacysettlement.com.
A real settlement payment will never:
- Ask you to pay a fee, buy a gift card, or send money to “release” your payout
- Ask for your Social Security number, bank login, or password by email or text
- Pressure you with a countdown to claim money you already qualified for
When in doubt, don't click the email link. Type the official settlement site address directly into your browser and check there.
Filed a claim but haven't been paid? How to track it
Second-round payments went out in batches over the summer, so “my neighbor got theirs and I didn't” usually just means you're in a later batch. Before assuming something went wrong:
Search your email and payment apps
Look for messages from the Facebook User Privacy Settlement administrator, and check PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle activity directly. Several people found the deposit sitting in an app they rarely open, and posts on Reddit describe finding $6.53 in PayPal weeks after it arrived.
Confirm you cashed your first payment
The second round only goes to people who cashed or deposited round one. If your first check expired on your fridge, there is no second payment coming.
Contact the settlement administrator
The contact details and status updates live at facebookuserprivacysettlement.com. If a payment was sent to a closed account or an expired check, the administrator is the only party who can reissue it.
Find settlements you qualify for right now
The Facebook deadline is long gone. But there are 100+ active settlements open right now, including privacy cases just like this one. Filing is free.
Will there be a third payment?
Nothing has been announced. The second round only happened because $100 million went uncollected: an unusual leftover, not a scheduled installment. If second-round money also goes uncashed, the court decides what happens to the remainder, but with individual payments under $8, a meaningful third round is unlikely.
We'll update this page if the administrator announces anything new. The more useful move: put that energy toward the settlements still open below.
Missed the Facebook settlement? You had a lot of company.
Nearly everyone in America with a Facebook account between 2007 and 2022 qualified, hundreds of millions of people, yet about 28 million filed. Everyone else left money on the table, and courts don't accept late claims after final approval. There is no way to get paid from this settlement now.
The reason most people miss settlements is simple: notices are easy to mistake for spam, claim windows are short, and nobody has time to monitor court dockets. That's the entire reason Payout exists: the app tracks 100+ active class action settlements, matches you to the ones you qualify for, and alerts you before every claim deadline.
If privacy cases like this one are what you qualified for, several are open right now, including the Google Assistant privacy settlement, the Flo Health privacy settlement, and the YouTube privacy settlement.
Payout is a settlement-discovery app, not a law firm, and does not provide legal advice. It does not guarantee eligibility, claim approval, or specific payment amounts. Settlement amounts and eligibility are determined solely by settlement administrators and courts. All settlement data is sourced from official court documents and settlement websites. Filing claims through Payout is free.
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