Tom’s Kids Toothpaste Lawsuit: Eligibility, Payouts, and Deadlines

If you bought Tom’s of Maine toothpaste in the United States between November 21, 2020, and March 6, 2026, you can file a claim in the $2.9 million Tom’s of Maine toothpaste settlement. Claims are due by July 6, 2026, and no receipt is required. The settlement resolves allegations that Tom’s of Maine and its parent, Colgate-Palmolive, deceptively marketed toothpaste made at a Sanford, Maine, facility that the FDA later found to have serious sanitation problems. Both companies deny the allegations.¹

Who Qualifies

The class covers anyone in the United States who bought Tom’s of Maine toothpaste for personal use during the class period. That period runs from November 21, 2020, through March 6, 2026. Any Tom’s toothpaste product manufactured at the Sanford, Maine, facility counts, and the settlement does not distinguish between adult and children’s varieties.² Purchases made for resale or redistribution are excluded.

How to File a Claim

You can submit a claim two ways. File online at ToothpasteSettlement.com, or mail a printed claim form to the Class Administrator at P.O. Box 2897, Portland, OR 97208-2897. The deadline for both is July 6, 2026. Only one claim per household is allowed. Questions can go to the administrator, Epiq, at 1-877-315-6779 or info@ToothpasteSettlement.com.³

How Much You Can Get

Proof of purchase is not required, but it changes the payout. Without a receipt, a household gets a refund equal to the average manufacturer’s suggested retail price for one Tom’s toothpaste product. With proof of purchase, you can be reimbursed for up to three products at their full price.³ Tom’s toothpastes generally sell for between $3.99 and $15.99.⁴ The exact average MSRP figure that will be used for no-receipt claims has not been publicly disclosed; the defendants are required to give that number to the claims administrator.¹

If approved claims exceed the money left after fees, expenses, and service awards, payments will be reduced across the board. Any funds left over after payouts will be donated to Equal Justice Works.³

Your Other Options

If you do nothing, you stay in the class and give up your right to sue Tom’s of Maine and Colgate-Palmolive over these claims, but you get no payment. To keep your right to sue on your own, you have to opt out by July 6, 2026. If you want to stay in the class but tell the court you disagree with the settlement’s terms, objections are due the same day.³

When Payments Will Be Sent

The court granted preliminary approval on March 6, 2026, but final approval has not been issued yet. The final approval hearing is set for September 10, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at the Central Islip Courthouse in New York.⁵ No checks will go out until the court signs off. The consolidated case, Rabinowitz et al. v. Colgate-Palmolive Company et al., resolves six lawsuits originally filed in New York, Florida, and California.⁶

What the Lawsuit Alleged

The suits claimed Tom’s of Maine marketed its toothpaste as “naturally sourced,” “safe,” “clean,” and made under “rigorous ingredient and packaging standards,” while it was actually being produced in a contaminated plant. Plaintiffs brought claims for intentional and negligent misrepresentation, breach of express warranty, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, and violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law.⁷

The dispute grew out of a May 2024 FDA inspection of the Tom’s of Maine plant in Sanford, Maine. In a warning letter dated November 5, 2024, the FDA found the facility’s drug products were “adulterated” under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because the company failed to follow Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations.⁸ Among the findings:

The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa was recovered in water used to make “Tom’s Simply White Clean Mint Paste” and to rinse cleaning equipment, and Ralstonia insidiosa was found at water points of use in amounts “too numerous to count.”⁸
Paracoccus yeei was detected in a batch of “Wicked Cool! Anticavity Toothpaste.”⁹
Inspectors documented a “black mold-like substance” near production equipment and powder residues near batches of “Silly Strawberry Anticavity” toothpaste.¹⁰
About 400 consumer complaints about odor, color, and taste were never investigated because they didn’t hit the company’s internal “trend” threshold.⁸

The FDA called the company’s initial corrective responses “inadequate” and told Tom’s of Maine to run a full risk assessment of products in distribution, including whether recalls were needed.⁸ No recall has been issued. Tom’s of Maine says on its website that “there is no recall of any Tom’s of Maine products” and that it tests every batch of toothpaste for harmful bacteria and mold before release.¹¹ The company said it has brought in water specialists, added safeguards, and is investing in upgrades to the Sanford plant’s water system.¹²

Colgate-Palmolive and Tom’s of Maine deny all wrongdoing and say they “agreed to the Settlement to avoid the costs and risks associated with litigation.”¹

Related Cases Not Covered by This Settlement

Two other lawsuits against Tom’s of Maine are moving separately, and filing a claim here has no effect on them.

In White v. Colgate-Palmolive, filed in February 2025, a plaintiff alleges that Tom’s of Maine Kid’s Natural Fluoride-Free Toothpaste in “Silly Strawberry” contains unsafe levels of lead and arsenic based on independent testing by the group Lead Safe Mama.¹³ The FDA’s current regulatory limit for lead in fluoride-free toothpaste is 10,000 parts per billion, and reporting by The Guardian noted that none of the brands Lead Safe Mama tested exceeded that federal limit.¹⁴ On March 11, 2026, a judge allowed the misrepresentation and negligence per se claims to proceed but dismissed the omission-based and unjust enrichment claims.¹⁵

In Clayborne et al. v. Colgate-Palmolive Company et al., filed in Illinois federal court in May 2025, plaintiffs alleged Colgate and Tom’s of Maine market children’s fluoride toothpaste with candy-like flavors, cartoons, and packaging showing full strips of paste that push kids to use far more than the recommended pea- or rice-sized amount.¹⁶ In March 2026, Judge Andrea R. Wood dismissed the children’s toothpaste claims, ruling the plaintiffs had “read too much into the product labels to proceed plausibly,” but allowed related claims about Colgate’s fluoride mouthrinse marketing to move forward.¹⁷

1
PR Newswire. Tom’s of Maine Class Action Settlement Notice
2
ClassAction.org. $2.9M Tom’s Toothpaste Settlement
3
Toothpaste Settlement. Settlement FAQ
4
Seacoast Online. Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste Class Action Settlement
5
GovInfo. Rabinowitz et al. v. Colgate-Palmolive Company et al.
6
Toothpaste Settlement. Rabinowitz et al. v. Colgate-Palmolive Company et al. Settlement
7
ClassAction.org. Rabinowitz Complaint
8
FDA. Warning Letter to Colgate-Palmolive/Tom’s of Maine
9
CBS 17. Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste Made With Bacteria-Filled Water, FDA Warns
10
The Hill. FDA Finds Black Mold-Like Substance at Tom’s of Maine Facility
11
Tom’s of Maine. The Safety of Our Toothpaste
12
ABC News. Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste Made With Bacteria-Contaminated Water, FDA Warns
13
Spectrum News Maine. Class Action Against Tom’s of Maine Alleges Presence of Lead and Arsenic in Toothpaste
14
The Guardian. Toothpaste Lead Heavy Metals
15
Harris Martin. New York Court Weighs in on Sufficiency of Claims in Arsenic, Lead-Containing Toothpaste Class Action
16
ClassAction.org. Colgate, Tom’s of Maine Lawsuit Claims Kids Fluoride Toothpastes Are Deceptively Marketed to Encourage Overuse
17
Law360. Clayborne et al. v. Colgate-Palmolive Company et al.