If you applied for a slice of Instagram's $68.5 million settlement, you'll have to wait a little longer to receive your payout, as the date of the final approval hearing has been postponed.
The final hearing of the class-action biometric privacy settlement has been pushed back from October 11th to November 21st, with no official explanation given. However, if you're one of the thousands of Illinois residents who applied to Instagram's Settlement, here's everything you need to know.
Instagram Class-Action Settlement Has Been Delayed by a Month
While the deadline for the Instagram settlement lawsuit passed at the end of September, claimants still have plenty of time to kill before they find out the case's results.
According to a post on the Instagram Privacy Settlement website, the case's final approval hearing has been pushed back by just over a month from October 11th to November 21st.
The approval hearing will determine whether the settlement is fair, whether it should be approved, and its results. This means that its postponement will delay the amount of time it'll take for claimants to receive payment information and ultimately, their cash payout.
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Why Is Instagram Paying Users Back?
Instagram's class action lawsuit — otherwise known as Parris v. Meta Platforms Inc — claims that the social media company Meta violated the Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA) in the state of Illinois, after collecting and logging the biometric data of its users.
While Meta has denied any wrongdoing, it agreed to pay a court settlement to Instagram users who were active on the platform between August 10, 2015, and August 16, 2023.
It's uncertain how much users will receive from this claim, but experts have calculated individual payouts to be around $7. However, the amount you can expect to receive will also be influenced by legal fees, and how long you've been using the social media app.
When Will Instagram Users Receive Their Payout?
Originally, claimants were told to expect their payment by January 9th, 2024 — 90 days after the date of the original final hearing.
However, now that this date has been pushed back, it's more likely Instagram users will be receiving payouts from February 19th onwards. It's also possible that the final hearing will be postponed again, as the case's website mentions it's always possible for court proceedings to move to a different date or time without additional notice.
