Sign Up for Forbes Class Action Lawsuit
Forbes class action lawsuit is currently open:
Those who meet eligibility criteria should apply before the deadline November 5, 2026. Forbes website tracker settlement: a $10 million fund over ad trackers on Forbes.com. Californians who visited from December 2023 to June 2026 can claim.
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Forbes Class Action Lawsuit
If you read Forbes.com from California, the page may have done more than show you an article. The Forbes website tracker lawsuit says that the moment a Forbes.com page opened, code on it told your browser to send your IP address, the number that identifies your internet connection and can point to your rough location, plus cookie identifiers, to outside ad companies. According to the complaint, the code included the LinkedIn Insight Tag, which can match a visitor to their LinkedIn account, Microsoft's Universal Event Tracking tag, and a tracker from Xandr, an ad-technology company Microsoft bought in 2021. The complaint says this started before any visitor could agree to it.
The legal claim rests on a California privacy law, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, known as CIPA. Section 638.51 bars anyone from installing a "pen register", a device or process that records the routing and addressing information of a communication but not its content, without a court order. The lawsuit claims each tracker counts as one, and that using them also broke California's Unfair Competition Law. CIPA allows $5,000 per violation, and the complaint estimated at least 2.2 million Californians visited Forbes.com in a single year.
Domenica Berman of Encinitas and Abygael Piehl of San Diego filed the case on December 20, 2024. It is Berman, et al. v. Forbes Media LLC, No. 3:24-cv-09287-WHO, before Judge William H. Orrick in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Class counsel, the lawyers the court appointed to represent the class, are Susman Godfrey L.L.P. and Don Bivens, PLLC. Forbes denies the allegations and admits no wrongdoing, and no court has decided who is right.
Forbes Class Action Settlement - $10,000,000
Forbes has agreed to pay $10,000,000 into a settlement fund to end the case. The fund is non-reversionary, which means none of it goes back to Forbes, however many people claim. The parties signed a binding term sheet on January 30, 2026, after a full day of mediation, and Judge Orrick granted preliminary approval on June 11, 2026. The settlement covers California residents whose data was shared through trackers on Forbes-owned websites from December 20, 2023 through June 11, 2026, a group the court estimated at about 3.9 million people. Chimo's deadline to file is November 5, 2026.
Several costs come out before anyone is paid. Class counsel have asked for 25% of the fund, $2,500,000, plus $118,148.40 in expenses, most of it for a technical expert. The two named plaintiffs, the people who sue on behalf of everyone else, have asked for $2,500 each. Notice and administration costs for Kroll Settlement Administration, the firm the court appointed to process claims, are estimated at $133,653 to $188,609, also paid from the fund.
Class counsel told the court the case carried real risk: as far as they knew, no other pen register case over website trackers had reached class certification, and a 2025 state bill, Senate Bill 690, would have retroactively carved cases like this one out of the law. Forbes also agreed, within 60 days after the settlement takes effect, to give clearer notice of its trackers in its privacy policy and other disclosures, at its own expense. The final approval hearing is December 2, 2026, in San Francisco.
Deadline for filing a claim: November 5, 2026
Forbes Website Tracker Class Action Payout: $60 - $185 (estimate)
There is no fixed payment in the Forbes settlement. Every valid claim gets an equal share of what is left after fees and costs, a method the notice calls pro rata. Unlike many privacy settlements, there is nothing to prove and no number of visits to count: one valid claim is one equal share, whether you read one article or hundreds.
Our estimate is about $60 to $185 per claim. If the court grants every request, about $7.2 million is left to share. The court filings estimate administration costs for claims from 1% to 3% of the 3.9 million people in the class. At 1%, or 39,000 claims, each share comes to about $185. At 3%, or 117,000 claims, it is about $61. Those claim rates are planning figures, not a forecast, and more claims than that would mean smaller shares. If checks go uncashed, the administrator may redistribute the leftover money to claimants who cashed theirs, and anything still left goes to a court-approved nonprofit or to the state as unclaimed property.
Eligible payments are sent once the court grants final approval and any appeals are resolved. Claims filed online can choose an electronic payment, while a claim mailed on the paper form is paid by check. If your address, email or phone number changes after you file, tell the administrator, which you can reach at (833) 930-0568.
Website Tracker (CIPA Pen Register) Class Action Settlements
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Forbes Website Tracker Class Action Eligibility
You may qualify for the Forbes website tracker settlement if you are a California resident and you visited Forbes.com, or another website Forbes owns or controls, between December 20, 2023 and June 11, 2026. The class is limited to California because the law the case is built on, CIPA, protects people in California. The claim form's sworn statement is specific: that you accessed Forbes.com while you were in California during those dates.
You are not in the class if you work for Forbes or one of its affiliates, are an officer or director of Forbes or in the immediate family of one, work for class counsel's law firms, or are a judge on the case or in that judge's immediate family. You are also out if you asked to be excluded, which had to be postmarked by September 24, 2026.
The claim form is short. It asks you to tick a box choosing to receive a payment, then for your name, mailing address, email address and mobile phone number. There are no receipts or account details to provide. You sign it under penalty of perjury, a legal promise that the information is true, and the administrator may audit claims and reject any that are incomplete, late or false. Only claim if you are confident you visited Forbes.com from California in that window.
Forbes Website Tracker Class Action Claim Form
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FAQ
California residents who visited Forbes.com or another Forbes-owned website between December 20, 2023 and June 11, 2026, and who were in California when they did. Forbes insiders, the judge and class counsel's staff are excluded.
No. The claim form asks for no receipts, screenshots or browsing history. You sign a statement under penalty of perjury that you accessed Forbes.com from California during the class period, and claims can be audited, so only claim if it is true.
No. Each valid claim receives an equal share of the money left after fees and costs. Someone who opened one article and someone who visited every day are paid the same amount.
A pen register originally meant a device that logged the numbers dialed from a phone. California's law defines it more broadly, as anything that records routing and addressing information, and the lawsuit claims website trackers that capture IP addresses fit that definition.
The complaint names the LinkedIn Insight Tag, Microsoft's Universal Event Tracking tag and the Adnx tracker from Xandr, an ad-technology company Microsoft bought in 2021. The settlement covers sharing through trackers on Forbes-owned websites generally.
Not from this settlement. The class is limited to California residents, and the sworn statement on the claim form says you accessed Forbes.com while you were in California between December 20, 2023 and June 11, 2026.
Class counsel have asked for 25% of the $10 million fund, which is $2,500,000, plus $118,148.40 in expenses. The two named plaintiffs have asked for $2,500 each. Judge Orrick decides the amounts at the December 2, 2026 hearing.
Yes. Within 60 days after the settlement takes effect, Forbes agreed to give clearer notice of its use of trackers, including in its privacy policy and other disclosures. Forbes pays for those changes itself, not from the fund.
If money remains six months after payments go out, for example from uncashed checks, the administrator may divide it again among claimants who cashed their checks. Anything still left goes to court-approved nonprofits or to the state as unclaimed property.
Class counsel told the court no similar tracker case had yet reached class certification, and a 2025 California bill, Senate Bill 690, would have retroactively removed cases like this from the law. Settling locked in $10 million for the class.
Sources
These are the court's own records for this case. They are hosted here unchanged, so you can check anything on this page against the documents themselves.
- Class Action Complaint (PDF) Complaint · Filed December 20, 2024 · U.S. District Court, N.D. California · Case 3:24-cv-09287-WHO
- Settlement Agreement (PDF) Settlement agreement · Filed April 30, 2026 · U.S. District Court, N.D. California · Case 3:24-cv-09287-WHO
- Order Granting Preliminary Approval (PDF) Court order · Filed June 11, 2026 · U.S. District Court, N.D. California · Case 3:24-cv-09287-WHO
- Motion for Attorneys' Fees, Expenses and Service Awards (PDF) Court record · Filed August 7, 2026 · U.S. District Court, N.D. California · Case 3:24-cv-09287-WHO
The full case file is on the court docket: view the docket.