$10M Forbes Media Settlement Ends Class Action Lawsuit Over Alleged Third-Party Data Sharing

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Forbes Media has agreed to a proposed $10,000,000 settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit that alleged the global media company tracked and collected private information about consumers who visited Forbes-owned websites and shared the data with third parties without consent.

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The proposed $10 million Forbes Media class action settlement awaits preliminary court approval. If approved, the deal will cover all California residents who, from December 20, 2023 to the date of preliminary approval, accessed websites owned or controlled by Forbes and had their IP addresses and/or unique identifiers shared with third parties as a result of the trackers present on Forbes’ websites. 

According to court documents, approximately 3.9 million unique California users accessed Forbes.com during the relevant time period.

ClassAction.org will update this page when the Forbes Media settlement website is live.

The settlement agreement states that Forbes class members who submit a timely, valid claim form can receive a cash payment estimated to be between $32 and $189. The amount of this cash payout may be adjusted on a pro rata basis, depending on the total number of valid claims filed.

Additionally, as part of the settlement, Forbes will provide website visitors in California with advance notice of the third-party trackers on its websites and increase the amount of control visitors have over how their data is collected and shared.

ClassAction.org will update this page with information on how to submit a Forbes Media settlement claim form as it is made available by the settlement administrator.

The Forbes Media class action lawsuit alleged that the company shared information about website visitors with third parties, such as Microsoft and LinkedIn, without obtaining affirmative consent for targeted advertising purposes. The lawsuit contended that the presence of the trackers constituted an unauthorized use of “pen registers” and “trap and trace devices,” in violation of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act and Unfair Competition Law.

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