The AT&T class action lawsuit settlement is a proposed $177 million deal resolving claims from two data breaches the company disclosed in 2024. A federal judge held the final approval hearing on January 15, 2026, but as of late April 2026 has not ruled, and no payments have gone out. The claims deadline has already passed.
What the Settlement Covers
The money is split into two funds tied to two separate incidents.
The $149 million fund covers the breach AT&T disclosed on March 30, 2024, in which a dataset appeared on the dark web containing information on roughly 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former customers. The exposed data included Social Security numbers, account passcodes, names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and billing account numbers.1AT&T. Addressing Data Set Released on Dark Web
The $28 million fund covers the breach disclosed on July 12, 2024, in which hackers downloaded call and text message records for nearly all AT&T cellular customers from a workspace on the third-party cloud platform Snowflake. The stolen records covered May 1 through October 31, 2022, plus a small subset from January 2, 2023. Compromised data included phone numbers, counts of interactions, and aggregate call durations, but not the content of calls or texts. Cell site identification numbers were exposed for a small number of individuals.2TelecomDataSettlement.com. AT&T Data Incident Settlement
AT&T denies wrongdoing and said it agreed to settle to avoid the “expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation.”3CNN. AT&T Data Leak Settlement The case is consolidated as In re: AT&T Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, MDL No. 3114, in the Northern District of Texas before Judge Ada E. Brown.4U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas. MDL 3:24-md-03114
Who Qualifies
The settlement defines two classes. The first is all living U.S. residents whose personal data was part of the March 2024 dark web incident. The second is AT&T account owners and line or end users whose phone number records were part of the Snowflake breach. If you fall into both, you’re an “overlap” class member and can claim from both funds.5Business.cch.com. AT&T Settlement Agreement
How Much You Can Get
Payments are tiered, and the caps are ceilings rather than expected amounts.
For the March 2024 breach, class members can claim up to $5,000 in documented losses that occurred in 2019 or later. Anyone who doesn’t submit documentation for specific losses gets a pro rata share of what remains in the fund. Class members whose Social Security numbers were compromised receive a Tier 1 payment worth five times the Tier 2 amount paid to those whose other data was exposed but whose Social Security number was not.6Asheville Citizen-Times. How Much Will Each Customer Get From AT&T Settlement
For the Snowflake breach, class members can claim up to $2,500 in documented losses that occurred on or after April 14, 2024, or receive a pro rata share. An overlap member with documented losses from both incidents could in theory receive up to $7,500.7Time. AT&T Data Breach Settlement: How to File a Claim
Actual payouts will be much lower than those maximums. Plaintiffs’ lawyers are seeking $59 million in fees, roughly a third of the settlement. The Lanier Law Firm requested $49.67 million plus about $565,000 in costs from the $149 million fund; Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert requested $9.33 million plus about $231,000 in costs from the $28 million fund. Those amounts, along with administrative expenses and $1,500 service awards for each class representative, come off the top before class members are paid.8Greenwich Time. AT&T Data Breach Settlement Attorney Fees9U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas. Preliminary Approval Order, MDL 3114 By December 30, 2025, roughly 4.38 million claims had been filed, and at the final approval hearing plaintiffs’ attorneys conceded total payouts to class members would be “much lower” than initial projections.10New Haven Register. AT&T Data Breach Settlement Attorney Fees11Bright Defense. AT&T Data Breach
Where the Case Stands
Judge Brown granted preliminary approval on June 20, 2025. Kroll Settlement Administration LLC began notifying class members in August 2025, and the claims window closed on December 18, 2025.12CPM Legal. CPM Announces Settlement of AT&T Data Breach2TelecomDataSettlement.com. AT&T Data Incident Settlement
The final approval hearing ran six hours on January 15, 2026. Judge Brown took the matter under advisement. According to the last update on the settlement website, dated April 23, 2026, she “continues to consider whether it will approve the Settlement,” and neither the administrator nor the parties know when a decision will come.2TelecomDataSettlement.com. AT&T Data Incident Settlement
A handful of individual class members filed objections after the claims window closed. Aminta Espina objected that the compensation was inadequate. Tanya Tankou filed an objection along with what she described as newly surfaced evidence. Ben Oster Shell Jr. objected to the motion for final approval itself. Nathan Hebert later filed a sealed request to withdraw his objection and pursue a private settlement.13CourtListener. In Re AT&T Inc Customer Data Security Breach Litigation Docket
If You Didn’t File a Claim
The December 18, 2025 claims deadline has passed. If you were a class member and didn’t file, the settlement won’t pay you.
The opt-out deadline also passed, in October or November 2025 depending on the amended schedule. Class members who opted out preserved their right to sue AT&T individually. Dozens of those opt-out cases have been filed and transferred into MDL 3114 before Judge Brown. One example is Wayne v. AT&T, filed in October 2025 in the Northern District of Alabama by a pro se plaintiff who opted out to pursue individualized damages; the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred that case to Judge Brown’s court in February 2026.14Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. MDL 3114 Transfer Order If you neither filed a claim nor opted out, class settlements typically release your claims once approval becomes final.
When Payments Could Actually Arrive
Even after Judge Brown rules, no money moves right away. The settlement agreement requires that all appeals be exhausted and all claim forms be reviewed before any distribution begins. Kroll is currently working through the roughly 4.38 million submitted claims. The funds are non-reversionary, so whatever remains after fees and administrative costs will go to eligible claimants rather than back to AT&T.10New Haven Register. AT&T Data Breach Settlement Attorney Fees
If you filed a claim, keep an eye on the address and email you used at the settlement website, telecomdatasettlement.com, for updates on the approval ruling and, later, payment.