A federal judge in Texas has granted final approval to AT&T’s $177 mn class-action settlement over two data breaches disclosed in 2024.
Senior U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater approved the agreement on Oct. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The settlement covers claims arising from separate incidents involving customer information exposed in March and July 2024.
The first breach came to light in March 2024, when a dataset containing information tied to 73 mn current and former AT&T account holders appeared on the dark web. The exposed records included Social Security numbers for some customers.
A second incident was disclosed in July 2024 after hackers downloaded AT&T data from a third-party cloud platform operated by Snowflake. Customers affected by either incident were eligible to submit settlement claims in 2025.
Under the original settlement terms, people who documented financial losses traceable to the March breach were eligible for payments of up to $5,000. Those affected by the July breach could claim documented losses of up to $2,500.
Actual cash payments are expected to be far lower for customers who selected tiered payments instead of documented-loss compensation. Court documents estimate Tier 1 payments at about $39 to $40, Tier 2 payments at roughly $7.50 to $8.10 and Tier 3 payments at approximately $6.50 to $7.10.
Tier 1 applies to customers whose Social Security numbers were exposed in the March incident. Tier 2 covers customers affected by the same breach whose other private information was exposed without their Social Security numbers, while Tier 3 applies to customers affected by the July breach.
Administrators classified 1,654,046 claims as Tier 1, another 687,859 as Tier 2 and 1,582,248 as Tier 3. Eligible claimants who supplied evidence of financial losses could instead seek documented-loss payments where those losses were fairly traceable to the breaches.
The court found the settlement fair, reasonable and adequate. Fitzwater overruled objections with one exception involving the treatment of remaining settlement funds and approved the attorneys’ fee request.
Claims closed on Dec. 18, 2025, and the final approval order does not reopen the filing period. AT&T agreed to settle without admitting liability.
Payments will be distributed after the appeals period ends and administrators finish reviewing submitted claims. No payment date has been announced.
