The Taylor v. Google Android cellular data settlement is a $135 million deal that would pay up to $100 to each eligible Android user in the United States (outside California) whose phone allegedly used cellular data in the background without permission. A federal judge granted preliminary approval on March 5, 2026, and the final approval hearing is set for June 23, 2026. Roughly 100 million people may qualify.1
Who Qualifies
The settlement class covers anyone in the United States who used a mobile device running Android to access the internet over a cellular data network at any point from November 12, 2017, through the date of final approval.
California residents are excluded. They are covered by a separate state-court settlement in Csupo v. Google LLC, which resolved the same allegations for the California class. Also excluded are Google’s officers and affiliates, the presiding judge and her immediate family, and class counsel.
How Much You Can Receive
Payments are capped at $100 per person. The settlement administrator, Angeion Group, plans to pay every qualifying class member the same amount, calculated by dividing the net fund (after attorneys’ fees, litigation costs, service awards, notice and administration expenses, and taxes) by the number of eligible recipients. Class counsel has said they do not expect payments to reach the $100 cap given the size of the class.
You can choose to be paid by Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, ACH transfer, or virtual Mastercard. If money is left over after initial payments and a second distribution is workable, additional pro rata payments go out to those already paid, again capped at $100. Anything that still cannot be distributed goes to a court-approved organization.
The fund is non-reversionary, so none of the $135 million returns to Google.
What You Need to Do
There is no traditional claim form. If you don’t opt out, you are automatically included. But being included is not the same as being paid: the administrator has warned that class members who don’t select a payment method may not receive money, even though they remain bound by the settlement.
Eligible people should have received a personalized notice by mail or email with a Notice ID and confirmation code. With those credentials, you can go to federalcellularclassaction.com and fill out the Payment Election Form to pick how you want the money delivered.
Questions can be directed to the administrator at 1-844-655-4255 or Info@FederalCellularClassAction.com.
Key Dates
- The deadline to object to the settlement or ask to be excluded was May 29, 2026.
- The final approval hearing is scheduled for June 23, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. PDT before Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
- Payments will not be issued until the court grants final approval and any appeals are resolved. The court has acknowledged that process can add time.
What the Lawsuit Was About
Lead plaintiffs Joseph Taylor, Mick Cleary, and Jennifer Nelson filed the case on November 12, 2020. They alleged that Android phones sent data to Google’s servers around the clock, even when the phone was idle with every app closed, and that Android used cellular data to do it instead of waiting for Wi-Fi. The result, they said, was that users paid for cellular data that Google consumed for its own purposes.
Testing described in the complaint found that a stationary Samsung Galaxy S7 with default settings and a signed-in Google account exchanged about 8.88 megabytes of data per day while idle, with 94 percent of it going between the phone and Google. A 2018 study by Vanderbilt professor Douglas C. Schmidt recorded roughly 900 passive transfers in a single 24-hour period on an Android device with Chrome open. The transferred content included log files on network availability, open apps, and operating system metrics, plus advertising tokens and preloaded ads.
Plaintiffs also alleged that an Android settings toggle that appeared to block background mobile data use by Google Play services did not actually stop the transfers.
Google denies all of the allegations and maintains it did nothing wrong.
Changes Google Agreed to Make
Along with the cash fund, Google agreed to disclosure and interface changes that remain in effect for at least two years:
- Google Play’s terms of service will state that Android devices may transfer data passively in the background and may use cellular data when Wi-Fi is unavailable.
- New Android users will be asked to consent to these practices during initial device setup.
- The background data usage toggle will be grayed out, with a note explaining that background data use by Google Play services cannot be fully turned off.
Fees and Costs to Class Members
Class members owe nothing out of pocket. Attorneys’ fees, expenses, and service awards for the named plaintiffs are paid from the $135 million fund. Class counsel, Korein Tillery LLC and Bartlit Beck LLP, plan to request up to 29.5 percent of the fund (about $39.8 million) in fees plus roughly $750,000 in expenses, and each of the three named plaintiffs may request up to $25,000 as a service award. The court will decide those amounts at the final approval hearing.