Published
September 18, 2026
Drivers who bought a Thinkware X700, F200PRO, F70PRO, DC-M2-FG or DC-M2-FG-IR dash cam in the United States between January 25, 2019 and August 31, 2024 may qualify to claim a pro rata cash payment from Thinkware Systems USA's $850,000 false advertising class action settlement. Claims are open through December 14, 2026, and a single camera can be claimed with no receipt.
Current Status
Claims are open. The Superior Court of California, County of Placer granted preliminary approval, and the court-authorized notice program is live, so anyone who bought one of the five covered Thinkware dash cams can file now. The claim deadline is December 14, 2026; the online form at the official settlement website accepts submissions through 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific that day, and a printed form may be mailed to the claims administrator instead. The separate deadline to opt out or object is November 30, 2026.Nothing has been paid yet, and nothing can be. The Final Fairness Hearing is set for January 12, 2027, and payments only follow final approval and the settlement's Effective Date. Thinkware denies the allegations and any wrongdoing, and the court has not decided in favor of either side — the notice says so in as many words.
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Status
Claims Open
Claim Deadline
December 14, 2026
11:59:59 p.m. Pacific online · opt out or object by November 30, 2026
Estimated Payout
About $6.70 per dash cam
Pro rata from roughly $436,667 · a low claim rate pays more
Proof Required
No — for one dash cam
Proof of purchase needed to claim a second camera or more
What Changed Recently?
The court-approved long-form notice was issued in September 2026, which is the event that opened claims. Before that there was nothing for a class member to do: the complaint was filed in January 2023, the parties mediated in June 2024 before a retired judge at a private mediation service, and they reached a settlement in principle in August 2024. Two years of paperwork separate that handshake from the notice now in front of you, which is ordinary for a consumer class settlement and is the reason the class period ends in 2024 while the deadline to claim is in late 2026.The substance of the case is narrow and easy to state. The lawsuit alleges that Thinkware marketed five dash cam models as having a “Super Night Vision” function but did not disclose that the function was available only in parking mode — that is, while the car was parked and the camera was running on its surveillance setting, not while someone was actually driving at night. Plaintiffs brought the claim under California's False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act. Thinkware denies the allegations and denies any wrongdoing; it agreed to settle, the notice says, to avoid the uncertainty and expense of further litigation.
Who Qualifies?
You are a member of the settlement class if you purchased one of five specific Thinkware dash cam models in the United States between January 25, 2019 and August 31, 2024. There is no requirement that you still own the camera, no requirement that you registered it, and no requirement that you ever noticed the night vision behavior or complained about it.The only carve-out is on the company side: current and former employees, officers, directors, agents and legal representatives of Thinkware and its affiliated entities are excluded. Everyone else who bought a covered model in the window is in the class unless they opt out by November 30, 2026.
The five covered Thinkware dash cams
The class definition turns on the model number, not on what the box or the listing was called, so the first thing to do is match the unit on your windshield against the list below. The model number is printed on the camera body and on the original packaging, and it appears on most order confirmations.Two of the five — the DC-M2-FG and the DC-M2-FG-IR — were sold mainly through dealers, fleet outfitters and car audio installers rather than at retail, so a reader who had one professionally installed may not recognize the model name at all. It is worth checking an installation invoice.
| Covered model | What it is | Current retail listing |
|---|---|---|
| X700 | 1080p front camera with GPS and an optional parking mode, sold on its own or as a front-and-rear kit | X700 Dual Dash Cam, front and rear · X700 front camera only |
| F200 PRO | 1080p front-and-rear two-channel camera with Wi-Fi, GPS and the parking mode the case is about | F200 PRO front and rear, 1080p with GPS |
| F70 PRO | 1080p entry-level camera with Wi-Fi and a smart parking mode, usually bundled with a microSD card | F70 PRO with 32GB microSD |
| DC-M2-FG | Two-channel windshield unit pairing a forward camera with an interior-facing camera, aimed at fleets and rideshare vehicles | Sold through dealers and installers — no Amazon listing |
| DC-M2-FG-IR | The same two-channel fleet unit with an infrared interior camera for cabin recording in the dark | Sold through dealers and installers — no Amazon listing |
OpenClassActions.com is a consumer-advocacy and class-action news site, not a claims administrator or law firm. We participate in the Amazon Associates program, and the product links in the table above — including links to the Thinkware cameras this settlement is about — are affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you buy through them. They are provided so readers can identify the exact model they own, they do not reflect any view on the merits of the allegations, and buying a camera now has no effect on eligibility, because the class period closed on August 31, 2024. Two models, the DC-M2-FG and DC-M2-FG-IR, have no Amazon listing we could verify, so no link is shown for them rather than a link to a similar-sounding accessory.
How Much Can You Get?
The notice gives no fixed per-camera figure, and that is deliberate — the payment is a pro rata share, so it depends on how many people file. The arithmetic behind the deal, though, points at a number. Thinkware is funding $850,000. Out of that, class counsel may ask for attorneys' fees not to exceed $283,333.33 (33.33% of the fund), actual costs up to $20,000, a service award of up to $10,000 for the class representative, and the costs of notice and claims administration. All of those requests are subject to the court's approval at the January 2027 hearing. What is left over — approximately $436,667 if the court awards everything requested and administration runs to estimate — is the pool that actually gets divided.That residual number is the key to the per-camera estimate. The settlement carries an escalator pegged to a threshold of 65,130 Class Products, above which Thinkware adds $6.70 per additional product — and $436,667 divided by 65,130 is $6.70 almost exactly. In other words, the parties priced this settlement at about $6.70 per covered dash cam, and the escalator exists to hold that per-unit value steady if more cameras turn out to have been sold than the roughly 62,029 Thinkware reported. On the reported sales figure the escalator is not triggered.
Here is the part readers most often get backwards: $6.70 is a floor, not a ceiling. It is what each camera would draw if every single unit ever sold were claimed. Consumer settlements never see anything close to that — claim rates in the low single digits are normal — and the fund is non-reversionary, meaning Thinkware does not get the remainder back. So the smaller the turnout, the larger each valid claim, with the payment weighted by how many Class Products each claimant claims. A claimant filing for three cameras draws roughly three times what a claimant filing for one draws.
Two honest caveats. Nothing is guaranteed until the court grants final approval and the settlement's Effective Date passes, and the court is free to award less than class counsel requests, which would push the distributable fund and every individual payment upward. OpenClassActions does not give tax advice; if you want to know how a settlement payment should be treated on your return, ask a tax professional or consult the IRS directly.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
For one camera, nothing. A single Class Product can be claimed on your own attestation that you bought it during the class period — no receipt, no serial number, and no administrator-issued Settlement Claim ID. The online claim portal carries an explicit path for filers who do not have a Claim ID, and the printed form treats the ID as optional, marking the field "if known." That combination is what puts this settlement in the no-proof tier, and it is unusual enough to be worth saying plainly.For two or more cameras, proof of purchase is required. A receipt, an order confirmation, a credit card statement line, or an installation invoice showing the model will do the job. Anyone who ran a fleet, outfitted more than one vehicle, or replaced a camera during the class period is in this category and should dig out the paperwork before filing rather than after.
The no-proof path is not a formality. The claim form is signed under penalty of perjury, and the claims administrator can audit, question or reject any claim it doubts. Claim the cameras you actually bought.
What Is the Deadline?
Three dates matter, and they are not the same date.• December 14, 2026 — the claim deadline. The official settlement website accepts online submissions through 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific that day; a printed claim form must be mailed to the claims administrator at the address on the form.
• November 30, 2026 — the deadline to opt out of the class or to file a written objection. An opt-out form is available on the settlement website. Opting out means giving up any payment and keeping the right to sue individually; objecting means staying in the class and telling the court what you dislike about the deal.
• January 12, 2027 — the Final Fairness Hearing, at 8:30 a.m. in Department 32 of the Superior Court of California, County of Placer. The notice warns that this date can move, so confirm it on the settlement website before making plans around it.
Doing nothing is also a choice, and a costly one: it binds you to the release without producing a payment. Money left unclaimed does not come back to class members later — it goes to The Public Justice Foundation.
How Do You Take Action?
File at the official settlement website, TW Camera Settlement, which is the only site authorized by the court to accept claims in this case. The online form asks for your contact information, the model or models you bought, how many of each, and your payment election; it then asks you to attest under penalty of perjury that the purchases were made during the class period. If you received a notice with a Settlement Claim ID, entering it speeds things along. If you did not, choose the option that says you do not have one and continue.Three minutes of preparation saves a rejected claim. Confirm the model number on the camera body or the original box. If you are claiming more than one unit, have the proof of purchase ready to upload in the same sitting. And use an email address and mailing address you will still be reading in 2027, because the payment follows final approval by several months and an undeliverable payment is a forfeited one.
A printed claim form is available on the same website for anyone who would rather file on paper; it is mailed to the claims administrator at the address printed on the form. Class counsel in this case is the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman, P.C., appointed by the court to represent the class at no charge to class members. You do not need to hire your own lawyer to file a claim.
What Happens Next?
The claim window runs to December 14, 2026. Opt-outs and objections are due two weeks earlier, on November 30, 2026, and every timely objection will be considered at the Final Fairness Hearing on January 12, 2027, when the court decides whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate.If the court grants final approval, payments follow the settlement's Effective Date — the point at which the judgment is final and any appeal window has run. Neither the notice nor the settlement website states a payment date, and OpenClassActions will not guess at one. An appeal by an objector would push everything later. We will update this page when the court rules.
Sources and Verification
Every figure, date and model number on this page comes from the court-authorized settlement documents:• The court-approved long-form notice in Jessica Ratzak v. Thinkware Systems USA, Inc., Case No. S-CV-0049793 — embedded in full below — for the class definition, the class period, the $850,000 fund, the fee and service-award caps, the three deadlines, the cy pres recipient and Thinkware's denial of wrongdoing.
• The official settlement website, TW Camera Settlement, for the live claim portal, the opt-out form and the settlement agreement.
• The settlement agreement filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Placer, for the weighted pro rata allocation, the one-camera no-proof cap, the 65,130-product escalator threshold and the scope of the release.
• Amazon product listings, for the retail descriptions and model identification in the table above. Those listings are not settlement documents and have no bearing on eligibility.
Where sources differ we say so on the page rather than smoothing it over. In this case they do not: the notice, the claim portal and the settlement agreement agree on every date and dollar figure above.
Questions
Do I need a receipt to claim a Thinkware dash cam settlement payment?
Not for a single camera. One Class Product can be claimed on your attestation alone, with no receipt and no administrator-issued Settlement Claim ID. Proof of purchase is required if you claim two or more cameras, and the claims administrator can audit any claim it questions.
Does it matter where I bought my Thinkware dash cam?
No. The settlement class is defined by the product and the purchase date, not the retailer. A camera bought from Amazon, Best Buy, an installer, a car audio shop or Thinkware's own store counts the same, as long as it is one of the five covered models and was bought in the United States between January 25, 2019 and August 31, 2024.
How is the Thinkware settlement payment calculated?
There is no fixed per-camera amount. What is left of the $850,000 fund after court-approved attorneys' fees, costs, the service award and administration expenses is divided among everyone who files a valid claim, weighted by how many Class Products each claimant claims. The fewer people who file, the more each valid claim is worth.
What happens to Thinkware settlement money that nobody claims?
The notice states that all unclaimed Settlement Funds go to The Public Justice Foundation as a cy pres recipient. That money is not returned to Thinkware, and it is not redistributed to class members after the fact, which is why filing before the December 14, 2026 deadline is the only way to collect a share.
Does this settlement cover a Thinkware dash cam that failed or caused damage?
No. The released claims in this settlement are the advertising claims about the “Super Night Vision” function. Personal injury and product liability claims are carved out of the release, so staying in the class does not give up a claim for physical injury or property damage allegedly caused by a camera.
Official Settlement Notice
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Settlement Amount
$850,000
Case Title
Jessica Ratzak v. Thinkware Systems USA, Inc.
Case Number
S-CV-0049793
Court
Superior Court of California, County of Placer
Final Approval Hearing
January 12, 2027 at 8:30 AM
Department 32, Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse, Roseville, California
Administrator
EisnerAmper (Eisner Advisory Group LLC)
Official Website
TW Camera Settlement
