The Verizon administrative fee settlement is a $100 million class action resolution in Esposito et al. v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, filed in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Jersey, that covers postpaid wireless customers billed a monthly “Administrative Charge” between January 1, 2016, and November 8, 2023. Judge Ana C. Viscomi granted final approval on April 26, 2024, and payments began reaching claimants in early January 2025.
What the Lawsuit Was About
Verizon postpaid wireless bills carried a line item called the “Administrative Charge.” Plaintiffs alleged the fee was tacked onto monthly bills without adequate disclosure: customers were not told about it when they signed up, and its purpose was never meaningfully explained.
Verizon denied wrongdoing throughout the case. The company said its billing practices were lawful and that the fee was properly disclosed in its customer agreements. It agreed to the $100 million settlement anyway to close out the claims.
Who Qualified and How Much People Received
Eligible class members were postpaid wireless or data customers charged the Administrative Charge during the class period. The payment formula was a $15 base per account plus $1 for each month the fee was billed, capped at $100 per claimant.
Actual checks have varied. Some claimants received amounts well below the $15 base, with at least one person publicly reporting a payment of $2.37. As of early 2026, some people who filed timely claims still had not received anything, though by then all appeals against the settlement itself had been withdrawn.
If you accepted a payment, you signed a covenant releasing Verizon from future claims tied to the original Administrative Charge or its renamed successor. That release matters if you were considering separate action over the same fee.
The Claim Deadline and Payment Timeline
The deadline to file a claim was April 15, 2024. Claims could be submitted online at VerizonAdministrativeChargeSettlement.com or by mailing a printed form to the settlement administrator in Philadelphia. That window is closed. There is no mechanism to file late.
Final approval came on April 26, 2024. An appeal filed on May 4, 2024, pushed the effective date to September 20, 2024. The administrator estimated distributions would start in December 2024, and some claimants confirmed direct deposits and mailed checks by early January 2025.
What Verizon Changed on Your Bill
As part of the settlement, Verizon agreed to revise its customer agreement disclosures. The company rebranded the “Administrative Charge” as the “Network Access and Maintenance Fee.” The fee itself was not eliminated. It remains on bills at $3.30 per line per month and is subject to future increases. Critics called the change cosmetic.
If you are a current Verizon postpaid customer, this is the line item to look for on your bill. It is the same money going to the same place, under a new name, and the release you signed by cashing a settlement check covers it.
The Opt-Out Fight
If you signed up through verizonhiddenfees.com to opt out of the settlement, your status is now uncertain. A Missouri attorney named Evan Murphy of Murphy Advocates Law Firm ran that website and collected opt-out forms from roughly 11,000 class members, apparently by combining retainer agreements with exit paperwork.
Verizon and class counsel objected, arguing the effort violated the settlement’s ban on “mass” opt-outs. Judge Viscomi called the Murphy website “confusing” and agreed the process violated the settlement terms, but she declined to invalidate the opt-outs and let Murphy keep soliciting them in a March 20, 2024 order.
Verizon appealed. On December 17, 2025, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division vacated Judge Viscomi’s order. Judges Jessica Mayer, James R. Paganelli, and Christine M. Vanek found that the trial court “did not cite any supporting legal authority” for its ruling and that the settlement’s ban on mass opt-outs may have barred Murphy’s methodology entirely. The upshot: the validity of those 11,000 opt-outs is back in play, and people who thought they had preserved individual claims may not have.
Why the Payouts Were So Small
The other reason checks came in low involves attorney fees. The case originally moved through federal court in the Northern District of California, where discovery was conducted before Judge Edward Chen. When it came time to seek settlement approval, class counsel filed the final settlement complaint in New Jersey state court instead.
The Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, a class action watchdog, intervened on behalf of four class members and argued that counsel picked New Jersey specifically to escape the Ninth Circuit’s 25% benchmark on attorney fees. In New Jersey, the firms requested $33.3 million, exactly one-third of the fund. The Institute estimated the forum switch cost class members roughly $8.3 million in additional fees compared with what a federal court would likely have awarded. The California district court denied the motion to intervene on April 18, 2024, finding the New Jersey forum adequate. The fee award stood.
That math is why a $100 million headline turned into single-digit and low double-digit checks for many people: a third went to counsel off the top, and the remaining fund was divided across millions of eligible accounts using the $15-plus-$1-per-month formula, capped at $100.