AT&T Class Action: $177M Data Breach Settlement Explained

The AT&T data breach settlement is a $177 million class action resolution covering two separate 2024 incidents that exposed personal information belonging to tens of millions of current and former AT&T customers. A federal judge in the Northern District of Texas granted preliminary approval in June 2025, held a final approval hearing on January 15, 2026, and as of April 2026 had not yet ruled. No payments have been distributed, and the claim deadline of December 18, 2025 has already passed.

What the Settlement Covers

The consolidated case, In re AT&T Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation (case 3:24-md-03114-E), bundles dozens of lawsuits filed after AT&T disclosed two very different breaches in 2024.¹

The first, announced in March 2024, involved a data set that surfaced on the dark web containing information on roughly 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders. Exposed fields included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, account passcodes, billing account numbers, and Social Security numbers. The data appeared to date from 2019 or earlier.²

The second, announced in July 2024, involved call and text interaction records stored on a third-party cloud platform called Snowflake. Hackers downloaded records covering May 1 through October 31, 2022, and January 2, 2023, affecting “nearly all” AT&T wireless customers, about 109 million people. The stolen data consisted of phone numbers, interaction records, call counts, and aggregate call durations. For a small subset, cell site identification numbers were also compromised. Call and text content, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth were not included in this second breach.³⁴

AT&T denied wrongdoing and said it agreed to the settlement “to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation.”⁴

How the $177 Million Is Divided

The settlement fund is split into two pools that track the two breaches, and eligibility depends on which incident affected you.

The first breach fund holds $149 million and covers the March 2024 dark web breach. Individual claimants can receive up to $5,000 for documented out-of-pocket losses. Class members whose Social Security numbers were exposed are eligible for payments five times larger than those whose SSNs were not compromised.⁵⁶

The second breach fund holds $28 million and covers the July 2024 Snowflake breach. Claimants there can receive up to $2,500 for documented losses.⁵

Customers affected by both breaches can receive up to $7,500 in combined payments.⁶

Claimants who could not document specific financial losses were eligible for a prorated share of whatever remained in each fund after attorney fees and administration costs. The final per-person amount depends on how many valid claims were filed and the administrative costs deducted from the fund. About 4.38 million claims had come in by December 30, 2025, roughly a 4.8 percent claims rate.⁷

Plaintiffs’ attorneys are asking for about $59 million in fees, roughly a third of the fund. The Lanier Law Firm, lead counsel for the first breach class, is seeking $49.67 million plus up to $564,792 in costs. Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert, which led the second breach class, is seeking $9.33 million plus up to $231,438 in costs.⁸

Who Qualified to File a Claim

The first settlement class covers all living people in the United States whose personal data was part of the March 2024 dark web breach. The second class covers AT&T account owners, line users, and end users, both current and former, whose data was involved in the July 2024 Snowflake breach. Account owners were allowed to submit claims on behalf of authorized users on their accounts.⁹

The deadline to file a claim was December 18, 2025. If you did not submit a claim by that date, you are not eligible for a payment from this settlement.⁷

Where the Case Stands Now

Judge Ada Brown granted preliminary approval of the $177 million settlement on June 20, 2025. A six-hour final approval hearing followed on January 15, 2026, with debate covering the settlement classes, the opt-out policy, and the attorney fee requests.⁴⁷

As of April 2026, Judge Brown had not issued a ruling on final approval. The official settlement website, run by Kroll Settlement Administration, states that the court “continues to consider whether it will approve the Settlement” and gives no timeline. No money can be paid out until the court grants final approval and any appeals from that decision are resolved.⁹

How to Check on Your Claim

If you filed a claim before the December 2025 deadline, you can check its status at telecomdatasettlement.com or by calling the settlement administrator at (833) 890-4930. Keep the contact and mailing information tied to your claim current, since payments are distributed using the information on file after final approval is entered.⁹

A Separate FCC Matter, Not Part of This Settlement

AT&T also entered a $13 million consent decree with the FCC on September 17, 2024, over a January 2023 breach involving a third-party vendor that exposed data on nearly 8.9 million AT&T Mobility customers. That civil penalty went to the U.S. Treasury and does not fund any consumer payments. It is a separate action from the class action settlement described above, and customers cannot claim any portion of the $13 million.¹⁰¹¹

1
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas. MDL 3:24-md-03114
2
AT&T. Addressing Data Set Released on Dark Web
3
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T Form 8-K, Material Cybersecurity Incident
4
Time. AT&T Data Breach Settlement: How to File a Claim
5
6abc. AT&T Data Breach $177 Million Settlement
6
CNBC. Claim Your Share of the $177 Million AT&T Data Breach Settlement
7
New Haven Register. AT&T Data Breach Settlement Attorney Fees
8
Greenwich Time. AT&T Data Breach Settlement Attorney Fees
9
Telecom Data Settlement. Telecom Data Settlement Official Website
10
Federal Communications Commission. FCC Settles AT&T Vendor Cloud Breach
11
Federal Communications Commission. FCC Consent Decree, AT&T Vendor Cloud Breach