Google and its advertising subsidiary AdMob have agreed to pay $8.25 million to resolve a federal lawsuit alleging the companies collected personal information from children under 13 through apps sold on the Google Play Store without first getting a parent’s permission, as federal law requires. The case covers more than a decade of Google Play activity, and unlike many privacy settlements, it is not limited to apps marketed toward kids: any app counts if the person using it was younger than 13 at the time. Anyone who qualifies has only until September 14 to file a claim, since payment is not automatic.
A Decade of Google Play Activity Under One Settlement
The settlement resolves A.B., et al. v. Google LLC, et al., a case filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit accused Google and AdMob of violating children’s privacy protections by collecting, using and disclosing personal information from children younger than 13 who downloaded or used apps through Google Play, without obtaining verifiable parental consent first. Google and AdMob deny the allegations and deny any wrongdoing; no court has ruled on the underlying claims, and the settlement resolves the case without an admission of liability.
What sets this settlement apart from many app-privacy cases is how broad the covered conduct is. The class period runs from April 1, 2015, through the present, and it is not restricted to apps built for children or labeled as kids’ content. A person qualifies if they were younger than 13 at any point during that decade-plus window and downloaded or used any app on Google Play, regardless of whether that app was ever marketed toward children.
That breadth traces back to how federal children’s privacy law is written. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act generally requires an app operator to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from a user under 13, and that requirement applies once an operator has actual knowledge of a young user’s age, not only when an app is designed for children. The lawsuit argued that standard extends the settlement class well beyond dedicated kids’ apps to any app a child under 13 happened to download, whether it was a game, a homework tool, or something built for a general audience that a younger sibling simply picked up on a shared tablet.
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Payments Are Estimated at $40 to $200, Not Guaranteed
The $8,250,000 settlement fund does not divide evenly among every valid claim. Administrative costs, taxes, and court-approved attorneys’ fees and service awards come out of the fund first, and the remaining balance is split proportionally among everyone who files on time. Court filings estimate individual payments will land somewhere between $40 and $200 per valid claim, though the settlement administrator has not promised a specific figure, and the final amount depends on how many people ultimately file.
Filing a claim is the only way to receive money from the fund; doing nothing forfeits a payment while still binding a claimant to the settlement’s terms. Because the underlying claims involve people who were minors when the alleged conduct occurred, a parent or guardian generally files on behalf of anyone still under 18, rather than the child filing alone. An adult who was under 13 sometime after April 2015 and is now old enough to file independently can submit a claim on their own behalf. The settlement administrator, Kroll Settlement Administration, is the only entity authorized to process claims, and it does not charge a fee to submit one.
The Deadline Falls Before the Court Even Rules
The window to opt out of the settlement or formally object to its terms closed August 4, 2026. The deadline to file a claim for a payment is September 14, 2026, whether submitted online or postmarked by mail. A federal judge is scheduled to hold a final approval hearing on September 24, 2026, ten days after the claim window closes, meaning every eligible household has to decide whether to file before knowing whether the settlement will actually receive final court approval.
That sequencing is standard in class-action settlements but easy to miss: a family that waits to see how the case turns out before filing will already be past the deadline by the time a judge rules. Settlement payments, once approved, still typically take additional months to reach claimants, since courts generally allow time for an appeal of the final approval order before any money moves — a pattern that has delayed payouts in other recent class-action settlements even after a judge signed off.
As with any large class-action fund, only the official settlement website, coppaprivacyclassaction.com, and its Kroll-run claims process can accept a filing. Filing does not require payment, and the legitimate claim form does not ask for a Social Security number or bank login credentials up front. Anyone contacted by phone or text demanding a fee to “release” a payment, or asking for financial account access before a check has even been calculated, is not part of the real settlement process.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team before publication.
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