Trader Joe's FACTA Receipt Settlement: Who Can File a Claim

Who may qualify for this settlement?

• The settlement class covers account holders whose card was used at a Trader Joe’s store during the stated period, but only where the payment system produced a receipt showing the card’s first six and last four digits.
• Submitting a claim does not itself establish membership. The administrator will compare the claim with the class transaction data, and a nonmatch is not a valid claim.

What could an approved claimant receive?

• The settlement fund is $7.4 million and will not return to Trader Joe’s.
• Approved attorney fees and costs, a possible payment to the named plaintiff, and administration costs are taken from that fund before class payments are calculated.
• Each approved claimant’s first payment is an equal pro rata share: the available distribution funds divided by the number of people being paid. It is not a fixed amount.

How do I submit a claim, and what information will I need?

• A valid, completed Settlement Claim Form is required to receive a payment.
• Claims may be submitted online, by mail, or through the telephone interactive voice response (IVR) system.
• The claim ID printed on the direct notice is required. The form also asks for a name, physical address, email address if the person has one, and any other information required by the form. A phone number is optional.
• The notice does not specify any supporting-document requirement.

What is the deadline to claim money, object, or leave the settlement?

• No calendar date is given in this order. The claim, objection, and exclusion deadlines are all set for 60 days after the deadline for distributing class notice.
• If a notice is returned and later resent to a new address, that person gets two additional weeks to respond.
• The notice says late claim forms are invalid.

How will people be notified and where can they get claim help?

• The administrator plans to send direct notice by first-class mail when it has a mailing address from a card-issuing bank.
• It plans to use email when it has an email address but no mailing address, or when a mailed notice is returned. Returned mailed notices may be resent to a forwarding or newly located address.
• The settlement website and telephone IVR system must be available by the notice deadlines. This order does not provide the website address or telephone number.

When and how would payments be sent, and what happens to money left over?

• The first payments are scheduled within 45 days after the Effective Date. The Effective Date is when the final-approval order becomes final, not simply the date of the final-approval hearing.
• Payment may be made by electronic deposit or check. First-round checks are valid for 180 days.
• A second pro rata payment may be made only if enough money remains after first-round checks expire to provide at least $10 to each qualifying recipient. It would go only to people who received electronic deposit or cashed their first check before it expired.
• Money still left after the second-round checks expire goes to the Identity Theft Resource Center for the stated identity-compromise education and mitigation work.

What happens if I do not opt out?

• Leaving the settlement is called opting out or requesting exclusion. People who do not make a valid, timely exclusion request remain settlement class members and are bound by the agreement.
• For people who remain in the class, the release covers claims based on the receipt-disclosure allegations, including related claims that were or reasonably could have been alleged. The release period is broader than the payment-class transaction window: it runs from July 17, 2017, through the preliminary-approval order date.
• This order gives the deadline formula but does not provide the detailed procedure for submitting an exclusion request.

Has the settlement received final approval?

• The court granted preliminary approval, not final approval.
• The parties’ final-approval motion is due June 30, 2026. The final-approval hearing is set for August 10, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. in Department 9, 312 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, California 90012.
• The hearing date does not mean that final approval or payments are guaranteed.