Facebook ‘Sponsored Story’ Class Action Settlement Checks Mailed

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Top Class Actions viewers are starting to receive checks in the mail from a class action settlement that accused Facebook of using members’ profile pictures within its advertisements without proper authorization.

According to reader comments and posts on the Top Class Actions Facebook page,Class Members who submitted timely and valid claims for the Facebook settlement began receiving checks worth as much as $15 on Nov. 17, 2016.

If you filed a claim for the Facebook class action settlement, keep checking your mailbox because payouts are on their way!

The Facebook class action settlement resolves allegations that the social media network used members’ profile pictures or names in a “Sponsored Story” advertisement without permission.

According to the Facebook class action lawsuit, a “Sponsored Story” is an advertisement that shows up on a member’s Facebook page that typically shows that a Facebook friend “likes” certain advertisers.

The class action lawsuit alleged that Facebook neither paid members to use their photos or gave them a way to “opt-out” of the advertisements.

Facebook denied the allegations but agreed to pay $20 million to settle the class action and avoid the expense and burden of further litigation.

Although the initial settlement was reached in 2013, it has faced numerous objections and was even challenged in the Ninth Circuit court, mostly over concerns that it did not adequately compensate Class Members.

Class Members included all Facebook account holders in the U.S. who had their profile pictures, photographs, names, nicknames, pseudonyms, likenesses, or identities displayed in a “Sponsored Story” at any time on or before Dec. 3, 2012.

The deadline to file a claim for the Facebook advertisement class action settlement passed on May 2, 2013.

Congratulations to our Top Class Actions readers who submitted a valid claim and got PAID! If you missed out, sign up for our free newsletter to receive updates on new class action lawsuits and settlements. You can also check out which class action settlements are still accepting claims in our Open Class Action Settlements section.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jonathan Davis, Robert Arns and Steven Weinmann of the Arns Law Firm and Jonathan Jaffe of Jonathan Jaffe Law.

The Facebook Sponsored Stories Class Action Lawsuit is Angel Fraley, et al. v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 11-cv-01726 RS, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.