Subscribers to Apple Music and other services may be eligible to claim part of a $25 million settlement over the company's subscription-share program.
The settlement resolves a lawsuit over Apple's Family Sharing perk, a free service that allows up to six users to access a handful of pay-per-month apps — including Apple News+, Music, TV+, Arcade and Apple Card — under one shared subscription.
According to the complaint, Walter Peters v. Apple Inc., Apple ran "deceptive" advertisements for Family Sharing alongside "virtually all" of the App Store's subscription-based apps despite most of them not supporting sharing through the service. As a result, millions of customers were misled into buying subscriptions through third-party apps "that they would not otherwise have purchased," lawyers alleged in the lawsuit.
Apple has denied any wrongdoing under the settlement and that it misled customers.
U.S. customers who had a Family Sharing plan and bought a subscription to a third-party app between June 21, 2015, and January 30, 2019, can file a claim under the settlement.
People who used Apple Family Sharing and who are eligible under the settlement can file to receive a payout through the claims website. If you have an identification number and PIN, you can file your claim through the website; if not, you must download, fill in and mail in the payment election form from the case's website.
The filing deadline is March 1, 2024, according to the the settlement site. Claimants who file after the deadline will not receive compensation.
Under the settlement, eligible class members can expect to receive "up to $30," according to the "Frequently Asked Questions" section of the claims site.
If you are eligible for a payout, you can choose between two payment methods: an ACH transfer (electronic payment) or a check, according to the settlement site.
You must indicate your payment preference by the filing deadline or risk forfeiting your piece of the settlement.
Eligible customers will receive an email with information about the settlement, The Verge reported. You are eligible if you purchased a subscription through a third-party app while belonging to the Family Sharing plan with at least one other person between June 21, 2015, and Jan. 30, 2019.
If you haven't received a notice despite meeting the eligibility requirements, you can still file a claim using the form on the settlement website and mail it in.
You may want to opt out if you plan on filing a separate lawsuit against Apple regarding any claims related to the the class-action suit. To do so, you must mail a letter including your contact information, signature and a statement detailing your decision to opt out of the settlement to the case's administrator.
Alternatively, you can complete an opt-out request form from the settlement website, print it out and mail it.
The opt-out request must be sent to the following address: Peters v. Apple Class Action Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 301134, Los Angeles, CA 90030-1134. Your request must be postmarked no later than March 1, 2024.
Elizabeth Napolitano is a freelance reporter at CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and technology news. She also writes for CoinDesk. Before joining CBS, she interned at NBC News' BizTech Unit and worked on the Associated Press' web scraping team.
