Avast antivirus buyers who filed a valid FTC claim and accepted their December 2025 refund are receiving a second payment in October 2026, part of 91,093 payments totaling more than $1.5 million. The claim deadline passed June 5, 2025, so no one new can file.
What Was Announced?
The Federal Trade Commission is sending a second round of refunds from its $16.5 million settlement with Avast. Its refund page, updated in October 2026, says it is sending 91,093 payments totaling more than $1.5 million, using money that remained after the first round.The second round goes only to people who filed a valid claim before the June 5, 2025 deadline and accepted their first payment. The first payments went out in December 2025, when the FTC announced nearly $15.3 million for 103,152 people; the refund page now says that round resulted in more than $13.5 million in refunds.
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Who Is Getting Paid
The Avast refund program was claims-based. In February 2025 the FTC emailed notices to 3,690,813 people and opened a claim process for consumers who bought Avast antivirus software between August 2014 and January 2020. Only those who filed a valid claim by June 5, 2025 received a first payment, and only those who accepted it are part of the second round.The FTC gives totals rather than individual amounts. Divided evenly, the second round would come to roughly $16 per payment, but that figure is arithmetic, not an official amount. The first round averaged about $148 per payment on the FTC’s announced figures.
Background: The FTC’s Case Against Avast
In February 2024 the FTC announced a complaint and proposed order against Avast Limited, a U.K.-based antivirus company. The agency alleged that since at least 2014 Avast had collected people’s browsing information through its antivirus software and browser extensions, stored it indefinitely, and sold it without adequate notice or consent, even while marketing its products as protection against online tracking.According to the FTC, Avast sold the data through its subsidiary Jumpshot to more than 100 third parties, including advertising, marketing and data analytics companies and data brokers, between 2014 and 2020. The FTC alleged the data remained re-identifiable despite Avast’s claims that it was anonymized and aggregated.
Avast settled by agreeing to pay $16.5 million for consumer redress. The order, proposed in February 2024 and finalized in June 2024, bans Avast from selling or licensing browsing data from its own branded products for advertising, requires consent before it sells such data from other products, and requires Jumpshot data and products derived from it to be deleted.
Payment Methods and Scam Warnings
According to the FTC, second-round payments go out by check, PayPal or Zelle. Checks should be cashed within 90 days. PayPal payments are deposited directly into the recipient’s PayPal account, and Zelle payments go directly to the recipient’s bank account with a note about the settlement. The refund administrator is Rust Consulting, Inc.; the FTC’s refund page lists its contact details and links to the agency’s refund FAQ.The FTC says it never asks people to pay money to get a refund, and that it never requires people to provide account information to get one. A request for a fee or account information in connection with an Avast payment would not come from the FTC’s program.
Questions
Who receives the second Avast refund payment?
The FTC says the second round goes only to people who filed a valid Avast claim before the June 5, 2025 deadline and accepted their first payment, which was sent in December 2025.
Can Avast users still file a claim?
The FTC is no longer accepting claims. The deadline was June 5, 2025, and the second round is limited to people who filed a valid claim by then and accepted their first payment.
How much is each second-round Avast payment?
The FTC gives only the totals: more than $1.5 million across 91,093 payments. Divided evenly, that would be roughly $16 per payment, but the FTC does not say whether individual amounts vary, so that figure is arithmetic rather than an official amount.
Why did the FTC make Avast pay $16.5 million?
In February 2024 the FTC alleged that Avast collected people’s browsing data through its antivirus software and browser extensions while marketing those products as privacy protection, and sold the data through its Jumpshot subsidiary to more than 100 third parties from 2014 to 2020. Avast settled by agreeing to pay $16.5 million and to an order, finalized in June 2024, banning it from selling or licensing browsing data for advertising.
How are second-round Avast payments sent?
According to the FTC, payments go out by check, PayPal or Zelle. Checks should be cashed within 90 days. PayPal payments go directly to the recipient’s PayPal account, and Zelle payments go directly to the recipient’s bank account with a note about the settlement.
Sources
- FTC — Avast refund program — second-round totals and payment methods (October 2026)
- FTC press release — first-round payments (December 2, 2025)
- FTC press release — claims process and June 5, 2025 deadline (February 24, 2025)
- FTC press release — complaint and proposed order (February 22, 2024)
- FTC press release — final order (June 2024)
