Forbes Website Tracking Settlement (California)
- Status
- Open — the administrator is accepting claims
- Payment
- Pro rata — set by claim volume
- Deadline to file
- Nov 9, 2026
- Approval hearing
- Dec 2, 2026
- Proof
- The administrator lists a filing route that does not ask for proof of loss. It can still ask for details that confirm you are in the covered group.
Who may qualify
You may qualify if you are a California resident who visited a website owned or controlled by Forbes between December 20, 2023 and June 11, 2026 and had your IP address or a unique identifier shared with a third party by the trackers on those sites. This one is not notice-gated: the claim form has a route for people who never received a Class Member ID, and no documentation of a loss is asked for.
What the settlement pays
Every valid claim receives a pro rata share of what is left of the $10 million fund after administration costs, court-awarded attorneys' fees and incentive awards. The administrator states the amount depends on how many valid claims come in and publishes no per-person figure — so there is no dollar estimate to quote here.
What happened
A lawsuit alleged that from December 20, 2023 through June 11, 2026, trackers on Forbes' websites collected visitors' IP addresses and unique identifiers without consent and shared them with third parties, in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the state's Unfair Competition Law. Forbes denies the allegations and denies any wrongdoing, and agreed to pay $10,000,000 into a settlement fund to end the case (Berman et al. v. Forbes Media LLC, No. 3:24-cv-09287-WHO, N.D. Cal.).
How to file
You can file with the settlement administrator yourself, and it is free. The official settlement site is here.
Most people who may qualify for one settlement may qualify for others they have never heard of. Cashout checks the open settlements against a few questions, keeps the official filing page and the requirements for each match in one place, and reminds you before a deadline.
Cashout is not a law firm and is not the settlement administrator. Final eligibility and payment amounts are determined by the settlement administrator, not by Cashout. Amounts shown are what the administrator or the settlement documents have published; they are not a promise of payment. Filing directly with the official administrator is always free.
Checking which settlements may apply to you is free. Cashout membership is optional and is a subscription: a 3-day trial for $0 or $1.00 today, then $19.99 every month, renewing automatically until you cancel. Which of these applies to you, and the exact date of the first charge, are shown at checkout before you enter a card. You can cancel anytime from your dashboard.