Yes, the Plaid class action settlement notice is real

If you own a smartphone, you likely use at least one money app to pay bills, transfer money or handle other finance-related activities. Plaid, Inc. is a financial technology company that creates a link between users’ bank accounts and 5,000 money apps such as Venmo, Robinhood and others. 

Some people have received emails notifying them that they may be eligible for a payment in a class action settlement if they connected their financial accounts to an app that used Plaid. Viewer Sandy emailed VERIFY to ask whether the Plaid class action settlement notice is real. 

THE QUESTION

Is the Plaid, Inc. class action settlement notice real?

THE SOURCES

• Cottle et al. v. Plaid, Inc.
• Class action settlement website
• Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein, law firm representing plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit

THE ANSWER

Yes, the Plaid, Inc. class action settlement notice is real. You may be eligible to participate in the class action settlement if you lived in the United States and connected a financial account to a qualifying app between Jan. 1, 2013 and Nov. 19, 2021. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The class action settlement stems from a court case, Cottle et. al v. Plaid, Inc., that alleges Plaid used consumers’ banking login credentials “to harvest and sell detailed financial data without their consent.”

Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein, a law firm representing the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, said a judge granted preliminary approval to the $58 million class action settlement on Nov. 19, 2021. Final approval is set for May 12, 2022, according to a website devoted to the settlement. The approval process may take several months, or longer if there is an appeal. 

The class action alleges Plaid obtained more financial data than was needed by an app, and obtained login credentials through its user interface which had the “look and feel of the user’s own bank account login screen,” the settlement website says. Plaid denies the allegations and any wrongdoing. 

You may be eligible to participate in the class action settlement if you lived in the United States and connected a financial account to a qualifying app between Jan. 1, 2013 and Nov. 19, 2021, according to the settlement website. You can run a search online to see if specific apps or services that connected to your financial accounts used Plaid. Claims must be submitted online to www.plaidsettlement.com/submit-claim or postmarked by April 28, 2022, the settlement website says. 

Under the settlement, Plaid will establish a $58 million fund. After deductions for attorneys’ fees and other expenses, the remaining money will be distributed to class members in equal portions. The amount of payments will depend on the number of valid claims filed, an FAQs page for the settlement says. It isn’t possible to provide an estimated payment amount before the deadline to file claims, according to the FAQs page.

Each person can only submit one claim, even if their financial accounts were connected to multiple apps or services through Plaid, the FAQs page says. 

More from VERIFY: Who is eligible to participate in the Old Navy class action settlement?