Amazon customers whose refund for a returned product was missing, late, incorrect or charged back on or after September 5, 2017 may qualify for a payment from the $309.5 million Amazon returns class action settlement. Claims are open: Subclass A members are paid automatically, while Subclass B members must file a claim with the Notice ID from their notice by December 1, 2026.
Current Status
Claims are open. The court-approved settlement website, ReturnSettlement.com, is now accepting claims, and Subclass B claims must be submitted online or postmarked by December 1, 2026; the notice gives a date but no time of day. The court granted preliminary approval on August 18, 2026 and set the final approval hearing for March 16, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. No payment date had been announced as of September 25, 2026, and nobody is paid until the court grants final approval.Free settlement alerts
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What Changed: Notice Went Out and the Claim Portal Opened
Class notice has gone out and the settlement website now takes claims. Class members log in with the Notice ID and Confirmation Code printed on their personalized notice, and the same site takes payment-method choices from Subclass A members and online opt-out requests.The full long-form notice, the claim form and the settlement agreement are now public, which answers what a claim actually has to show. Subclass B claimants need documentation for each return — usually proof that the item was sent back — plus a signed statement matched to the reason Amazon gave for refusing or reversing the refund.
Amazon denies the allegations and denies any wrongdoing. The court has made no finding that Amazon did anything wrong, and preliminary approval is not a ruling on the merits.
Who Is Covered?
The settlement class is anyone who started a return with Amazon or requested a refund for a physical product purchased and — per Amazon's records — received in the United States after being sold through Amazon.com from September 5, 2017, and who either did not receive a refund they should have, received an untimely or incorrect refund, or received a refund and was later incorrectly charged again for the returned product.The published documents give two different end dates for that window. The long-form notice and the claim form end the class period on February 12, 2026, while the FAQ on the settlement website ends it on August 13, 2026. If your return falls between those dates, check with the administrator before assuming you are out.
Excluded are Amazon, its employees and agents, the judge and the judge's immediate family, counsel of record, anyone who validly opts out, and the United States government. Purchases from Amazon affiliates and subsidiaries are excluded unless the purchase happened on Amazon.com and the return was handled through Amazon's fulfillment channels.
Subclass A and Subclass B
Both subclasses are drawn from Amazon's own return and refund records, and the notice each class member received says which one they are in. A person can be in both and is paid from both.• Subclass A — automatic payment. These are transactions Amazon identified as owed. No claim form is needed. The only step is to choose a payment method on the settlement website within 105 days after the court grants final approval. Anyone who does not choose is matched to Zelle if possible, then sent three reminder emails, and then paid by another method such as check or Amazon credit.
• Subclass B — claim form required. These are the remaining transactions in the class, where Amazon's records do not confirm a refund was owed. Each one pays only if the claimant files by December 1, 2026 and shows it is more likely than not that the refund was wrongly denied, cut short or charged back.
How Much Could You Get?
There is no flat amount. Attorneys' fees, costs, service awards and administration expenses come out of the $309.5 million fund first. Class counsel may ask for up to $100 million in fees and up to $1 million in costs, and the court decides those requests at the final approval hearing.The rest is split in two. Subclass A shares 92.7% of the net fund, paid as the unpaid transaction amounts plus a proportional share of interest. Subclass B shares the other 7.3%, divided among approved claimants in proportion to their unpaid amounts and interest.
That split matters for Subclass B. 7.3% of the full $309.5 million is about $22.6 million before any deductions, and the settlement agreement records Amazon's estimate that the likely Subclass B claim pool is about $400 million. If claims come in anywhere near that level, a Subclass B payment will be a fraction of the disputed refund rather than the full amount.
Separately from the fund, Amazon had already issued about $570 million in previously unpaid refunds by December 1, 2025, and agreed to make reasonable efforts to pay roughly $34 million more outside the fund. Refunds it cannot complete before the final approval motion are paid from the Subclass A share instead.
What a Subclass B Claim Needs
• Your Notice ID. The online portal asks for the Notice ID and Confirmation Code from your personalized notice, and the paper claim form has a Notice ID field.• Details for each return. The order number, product description, date you requested the refund, refund amount requested and, if you know it, the reason Amazon rejected it. The claim form tells you to take a screenshot from Your Orders showing the order number, the item, the refund requested and the rejection reason.
• Proof of tender. For almost every rejection reason, the form requires proof that you actually sent the item back, such as a carrier or drop-off receipt, plus a signed statement specific to that reason.
• Payment records for failed payments. If Amazon said your payment for the order failed, you need a bank, card or payment-app record showing the charge posted and was not reversed.
The administrator can ask for more information, and a claim that is incomplete or denied comes with a notice explaining why. You then have 14 days to fix it or appeal; with no response, the decision is treated as accepted after 21 days, and the administrator's final decision cannot be challenged further. Claims must be filed by the class member personally, except for a minor, an incapacitated person or a deceased class member.
What If You Did Not Get a Notice ID?
Look again before giving up. The personalized notice went to the email address on the Amazon account, was resent to any alternate address on the account when the first email bounced, and was followed by at least three reminder emails. Search every inbox you have used for Amazon, including spam and promotions folders, and any mail you received, for a notice about the Amazon Return Policy Litigation settlement.The online portal cannot be used without one. It requires both the Notice ID and the Confirmation Code from your personalized notice, and there is no way around that on the portal itself.
A mailed claim may be an option. A paper claim form can be downloaded from the settlement website's Important Documents page and mailed, postmarked by December 1, 2026. That form also has a Notice ID field, and the documents do not say whether a mailed claim without one will be accepted, so contact the official settlement administrator through the Contact page on ReturnSettlement.com before relying on it. Do it well before the deadline.
Your own Amazon account is also worth checking: the notice points class members to Your Transactions on Amazon.com for the status of their returns and refunds.
Deadlines
December 1, 2026 is the deadline for Subclass B claims, submitted online or postmarked by mail, and the deadline to opt out or object.Opting out must be done in writing through the website's opt-out form or by mail, signed personally, and cannot be done by phone or email; one person cannot opt out on behalf of anyone else. An objection has to be filed with the court and served on the administrator by the same date, and must say whether the objector plans to appear at the final approval hearing. Someone who opts out gets no payment and cannot object.
Where to File
The only court-approved site is ReturnSettlement.com, run by Angeion Group as the court-appointed settlement administrator. Subclass B claims are filed on its Submit Claim page, and a paper claim form can be downloaded from its Important Documents page. Payment options on the claim form are an Amazon gift card, check, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or a virtual prepaid card.Filing is free, and the administrator does not need your Amazon password. Treat any other site that asks for your Amazon login, a fee or a full payment-card number as suspect.
What Happens Next
Class counsel's request for attorneys' fees, costs and service awards is due November 17, 2026, the motion for final approval is due February 1, 2027, and the court holds the final approval hearing on March 16, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. The court can move that hearing without further notice, so check the settlement website before relying on the date.Final approval is not the last step. Payments wait for the judgment to become final, including any appeals, then for Amazon's final funding payment within 30 days, then for distribution. No payment date had been announced as of September 25, 2026. Our running Amazon returns settlement news update tracks each filing as it lands.
Other Amazon Class Actions and Settlements
This is not the only Amazon matter with money attached. The FTC's Prime enrollment case produced the Amazon Prime cancellation settlement, and Amazon has been ordered to return roughly $600 million in tariff-related charges to customers. Sellers rather than shoppers are covered by the Amazon third-party seller class action. Everything currently claimable is listed on our open class action settlements page.Sources
• Official settlement website — ReturnSettlement.com, including its FAQs and claim portal• Long-form notice and claim form, In re Amazon Return Policy Litigation
• Settlement agreement (Dkt. 171-5, filed January 23, 2026)
• Order on Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Approval, In re Amazon Return Policy Litigation, No. 2:23-cv-01372-JNW (W.D. Wash. Aug. 18, 2026) (Dkt. 193)
• CourtListener — full docket, In re Amazon Return Policy Litigation, No. 2:23-cv-01372 (W.D. Wash.)
• TechCrunch — Amazon agrees to pay consumers $309M in returns policy settlement (Jan. 27, 2026)
This page is informational and is not legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Amazon returns settlement approved?
It has preliminary approval only. Judge Jamal N. Whitehead preliminarily approved the settlement on August 18, 2026, which allowed notice to go out and claims to open. Final approval is a separate decision set for a hearing on March 16, 2027, and the court has not made it yet.
Is the Amazon returns settlement only for Washington residents?
No. The Amazon returns settlement is nationwide. It covers anyone in the United States who started an Amazon return or asked for a refund on a physical product bought and received in the U.S. since September 5, 2017, and whose refund was missing, late, short or charged back. Washington comes up because the case is in federal court in Seattle, where Amazon is based, and the lawsuit relies partly on Washington consumer protection law; neither limits who is covered.
How do I know whether I am in Subclass A or Subclass B?
The notice tells you. Both subclasses are built from Amazon's own return and refund records, and the claim form says the notice emailed to each class member identified whether that person is in Subclass B. Subclass A members are paid automatically and only choose a payment method; Subclass B members must file a claim by December 1, 2026. A person can be in both.
What if I never got a Notice ID?
The online claim portal will not let you file without the Notice ID and Confirmation Code from your personalized notice, and there is no way around that on the portal itself. First search every inbox you have used on your Amazon account, including spam folders, and any mail you received about the settlement. A paper claim form can be downloaded from the settlement website and mailed, postmarked by December 1, 2026, but it also has a Notice ID field, so contact the official settlement administrator through the Contact page on ReturnSettlement.com before relying on a mailed claim.
What documentation does a Subclass B claim need?
For each return, the order number, product, date the refund was requested, refund amount and the rejection reason if known, plus the documentation and signed statement the claim form assigns to that rejection reason. For most reasons that means proof of tender, such as a carrier or drop-off receipt showing the item was sent back. If the reason was that your payment to Amazon failed, you need a bank, card or payment-app record showing the charge posted and was not reversed.
How much money will class members receive?
There is no flat per-person amount. After fees and costs, 92.7% of the net fund goes to Subclass A as the unpaid transaction amounts plus a proportional share of interest, and 7.3% goes to Subclass B claimants in proportion to their unpaid amounts. Class counsel may ask for up to $100 million in fees and $1 million in costs, which the court decides at the March 2027 hearing.
When will payments be sent?
No payment date had been announced as of September 25, 2026. Payments go out only after final approval and after any appeals are resolved, and the final approval hearing is not until March 16, 2027. Subclass A members have until 105 days after final approval to pick a payment method on the settlement website.
