Class Action Settlement Verizon: 2026 Status and Payments

Case	Esposito, et al. v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, No. MID-L-6360-23
Court	Superior Court of New Jersey
Status	Closed, no longer accepting claims
Claim deadline	April 15, 2024
Estimated payout	Claims closed. Formula was $15 per account plus $1 per month of charges, capped at $100, reduced pro rata; reported payments started January 2025 and many were under $15
Proof required	No
How to file	No claim form available

Verizon Wireless (Cellco Partnership) settlement facts, last verified October 31, 2026. Sources are listed at the end of this page.

The class action settlement Verizon agreed to over its monthly administrative charge is finished: the $100 million fund stopped taking claims on April 15, 2024, and the settlement administrator started sending payments in January 2025. As of October 31, 2026, there’s no open claim form for Verizon wireless customers in any case. If you filed on time, your money should already have arrived, usually as a small PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or check payment.

What the $100 Million Administrative Charge Lawsuit Claimed

The lawsuit said the carrier advertised flat monthly plan prices, then added a recurring “Administrative Charge” or “Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge” to postpaid bills. Plaintiffs called it a hidden price increase. The complaint described the fee as a “revenue lever” the company could raise whenever it wanted, according to ClassAction.org’s summary of the filing.

The company settled without admitting wrongdoing. The case is Esposito v. Cellco Partnership, filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey. Cellco Partnership is the legal entity that does business as Verizon Wireless, which is why that name, not the brand, shows up on the court papers and on some bank deposit descriptions.

Who counted as a class member

A class member was a current or former U.S. account holder with a postpaid phone plan who paid one of the two charges between January 1, 2016, and November 8, 2023. Being eligible didn’t get you paid. You also had to file a claim by April 15, 2024.

Prepaid customers were out. The class covered postpaid service only.
Home internet alone didn’t count. The charge at issue sat on wireless plans, so a Fios-only household had nothing to claim.
Line users weren’t separate claimants. Payment was per account, so a family of five on one plan got one payment, sent to the account holder.
Charges after November 8, 2023 aren’t covered. Anything you paid later falls outside the release.

How Much the Class Action Settlement Verizon Paid Actually Came To

Far less than the $100 headline. Each account was set to receive $15 plus $1 for every month it paid the charge, capped at $100, but the settlement terms also said amounts would shrink depending on how many people filed. They did. CBS News reported on January 7, 2025 that one customer received $2.37, and many reported payouts landed under the $15 base.

A worked example of the pro rata cut

The part of the formula people misread is that the reduction applied to the whole award, base included. The $15 was a starting point, not a floor. Suppose you paid it for 60 months. The formula says $15 plus $60, or $75. If filings came in high enough that the administrator had to scale every award down by 85%, that same account gets about $11. Because the cut hits everyone by the same percentage, long-time customers and newer ones both saw single or low double digits.

Attorneys’ fees and administration costs also came out of the fund before anyone was paid, which is standard in a common-fund deal. If you’re weighing whether the next one is worth the five minutes, our look at whether class actions are worth joining walks through the trade-off.

Where a Missing Verizon Settlement Payment Usually Turns Up

Most “missing” payments were sent, just not noticed. Claimants picked a payment method when they filed: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, a virtual prepaid card, or a paper check, per ClaimDepot’s case tracker. A deposit under a few dollars is easy to miss in a wallet app, and the payee line reads “Verizon Administrative Settlement Administrator,” not the brand you know, as WTHR reported.

Search the email you used on the claim form, including the junk folder, for messages from the administrator. That address is the one tied to your payment.
Check the transaction history in the PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle account linked to that email, or the checking account behind Zelle, for January 2025 onward.
Contact the administrator through the official settlement website with your claim ID if nothing turns up.

To protect yourself, don’t pay anyone who offers to “recover” a settlement payment for a fee or asks for a gift card. That’s a common scam, and the real administrator never charges you. Missed the deadline entirely? Then you lose your share. Late filings aren’t accepted once a fund is distributed, and forum threads describing a second round of payments haven’t been backed by any court filing we could locate.

Other Verizon Lawsuits and Where Each Stands in October 2026

None of these cases is open for claims. The status column reflects court reporting and case news available on October 31, 2026.

Case	What it’s about	Status, October 2026
Esposito v. Cellco Partnership	Monthly administrative charge	Closed, paid starting January 2025
Barcomb v. TracFone Wireless	December 2021 prepaid customer breach	Claims closed August 7, 2025; payments began April 9, 2026
Malacon v. Verizon Communications	2023 insider breach of about 63,000 employees’ records	Filed February 2024 in federal court in California, no settlement found
Parker v. Verizon Communications	Voice ID voiceprints under Illinois biometric law	Sent to arbitration in May 2025, class case paused, no settlement found
Daffin and Webb v. ABC Phones (Victra)	2026 breach at an authorized retailer	Filed 2026 in federal court in North Carolina, early stage

Two rows need context. In the Voice ID case, a federal judge in Chicago ruled that the customer agreement sends the dispute to an arbitrator, so the proposed class action was put on hold, ID Tech reported in June 2025. The Victra suits target a retailer, not the carrier. Victra runs stores under the brand as an authorized dealer, so any future payout there would come from that company. Our data breach list tracks cases like it.

You may also see the location data fine in the news. That isn’t a consumer case. The FCC fined the company $46.9 million over the sale of customer location data, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s power to issue those fines in June 2026, and in August 2026 it refused Verizon’s bid to get the money back. No consumer refund came out of it.

The TracFone Deal Covers Straight Talk and Total Wireless

The TracFone data breach settlement is the other deal Verizon customers most often mix up with the billing case. TracFone is a prepaid carrier Verizon owns, and its brands include Straight Talk, Simple Mobile, Net10, Walmart Family Mobile, and Total Wireless. It offered up to $3,250 for ordinary losses and up to $50,000 for documented identity theft, plus three years of credit monitoring. The claim deadline was August 7, 2025, the court approved the deal on February 3, 2026, and the administrator began paying approved claims on April 9, 2026.

The next class action settlement Verizon agrees to will get its own claim site and notice emails, so keep the email on your account current and watch our open claim deadlines list. When a new one opens, our guide to joining a class action covers filing. If you also carry service from another carrier, see our pages on AT&T settlements and T-Mobile settlements.

Verizon Settlement FAQ

Has the Verizon class action settlement been paid?

Yes. Payments from the $100 million administrative charge settlement started in January 2025 through the payment method each claimant chose. Most reported amounts were well under the $100 cap.

How much did people get from the Verizon settlement?

Most customers got a few dollars to just under $15, not the up to $100 figure in the notice. The formula was reduced pro rata because of claim volume, and CBS News reported one payment of $2.37.

Why did I get money from the Verizon Administrative Settlement Administrator?

That payee name belongs to the administrator of the $100 million administrative charge settlement. If you filed a valid claim by April 15, 2024, the deposit is your share, sent by the method you picked on the form.

Is there a new class action lawsuit Verizon customers can join?

Not with an open claim form as of October 31, 2026. A 2024 employee breach suit has no settlement we could find, and the Illinois Voice ID claims were sent to arbitration. You don’t sign up for an unsettled case; if one settles, class members get a notice.

Was the Verizon settlement email legit?

The real notices came from the court-appointed administrator and pointed to verizonadministrativechargesettlement.com. A legitimate notice never asks for a fee, a gift card, or your phone account password.

This page summarizes public information about legal cases. It is not legal advice. If you need advice about your own situation, talk to a licensed attorney.

Class Action Settlement Verizon: Fee Refunds, Payouts, and Open Cases