This settlement resolves claims that the data broker People Data Labs listed Coloradans' mobile phone numbers in its for-sale database without asking permission, in violation of a Colorado telemarketing statute. If PDL's records tie a Colorado cell number to you, you can file for an equal share of a $6,362,167 fund — but the online form will not open without the LoginID and PIN from your notice, and claims close September 29, 2026.
Current Status
Claims are open. The deadline to submit a Claim Form is September 29, 2026 — the Notice gives that date for online submissions and for mailed forms, which must be postmarked no later than the same day. The Notice does not specify a cutoff time or a timezone for online filing. Judge Rita F. Lin granted preliminary approval on June 30, 2026, which authorized the notice program and opened the claims process; no final approval order has been entered. The Final Approval Hearing is scheduled for November 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and no payment date had been announced as of August 6, 2026. If a notice reached you, it carries the LoginID and PIN you need to file online.What Changed Recently?
This is the first settlement OpenClassActions has covered under the Colorado provision that has been driving a wave of data-broker filings since 2025. Until now, every case built on the statute was a pending lawsuit with nothing to claim.The case began as Cochrane v. People Data Labs, Inc., filed September 29, 2025 in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, and it moved to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where it is docketed as Case No. 3:25-cv-09533-RFL. The parties signed a Class Action Settlement Agreement dated May 19, 2026, and Judge Rita F. Lin granted preliminary approval on June 30, 2026. Simpluris, the court-appointed Settlement Administrator, then began sending notices to the people PDL's records identified.
The allegations have not been proven. The Notice states plainly that PDL denies that it did anything wrong and that the Court has not decided who is right; both sides say they agreed to settle to avoid the costs, risks and delay of continuing the litigation.
Who Qualifies?
The Court defined the Class as all individuals in People Data Labs' database with an inferred mobile number as determined by the information available in the company's records, a Colorado area code, an inferred Colorado location (current or historical), whose data was sourced on or after September 2022, and whose information was disclosed at least once from September 2022 to March 3, 2026.Every element of that definition points at PDL's own files rather than at anything you did. You do not need to have used People Data Labs, heard of it, received a call, or given it information. The complaint's premise is the opposite — that the company gathered and resold Coloradans' mobile numbers without ever contacting them. If a notice arrived, PDL's records already place you inside the class.
Two of the five elements are worth reading closely. "Inferred" is doing real work: the class covers numbers PDL's system classified as mobile and locations it associated with Colorado, which means a current Colorado address is not required if the historical association is there. And "disclosed at least once" is the trigger for the September 2022 to March 3, 2026 window — the number had to actually be surfaced to a PDL user in that period, not merely sit in storage.
Excluded from the Class are the judge assigned to the case along with the judge's family and staff; PDL and its officers, directors and related companies; and anyone who validly excludes themselves from the Settlement.
How Much Can You Get?
PDL will establish a Settlement Fund of $6,362,167.00. Four things come out of it before any class member is paid: the cost of notice and settlement administration, any award of attorney fees, any litigation costs, and any service award for the class representative. Whatever remains is divided equally among everyone who files a valid and timely claim.No per-person figure has been published, and the settlement documents do not state how many people are in the class, so any specific dollar estimate would be guesswork. What can be said is the shape of the arithmetic. Class Counsel has said it will ask the Court to approve up to one-third of the fund as attorney fees and reimbursement of litigation costs, which at the full request would be roughly $2.12 million, and it will ask for a service award of $5,000 for the class representative. Both figures are requests the Court rules on at the Final Approval Hearing, and neither is guaranteed. Notice and administration costs come out on top of that.
Equal division is the unusual part and it cuts both ways. Everyone with an approved claim gets the same amount, whether their number appeared once or a thousand times, so there is no benefit to having been listed more often. It also means the per-person payment moves inversely with the claim rate: a low response spreads the net fund across fewer people, and a high response shrinks each share.
For context on the underlying exposure rather than the payout, the statute the case is built on, C.R.S. § 6-1-305(1)(c), sets damages of at least $300 and not more than $500 for a first offense and at least $500 and not more than $1,000 for a second or subsequent offense. Those are the penalties the complaint sought, not amounts the settlement pays.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
No receipts, phone bills, screenshots or other records are requested anywhere in the claim process. What the process does require is the credential pair the administrator issued you.The online claim form opens on a login screen with two required fields, LoginID and PIN, both printed on the notice sent to class members. Because filing online is conditioned on codes that exist only in that notice, this page treats the settlement as Proof Required: Yes even though no documentation is requested. A claimant who never received a notice, or who threw it away, cannot simply fill in a form and submit it.
If you cannot locate your credentials, the Settlement Administrator will look up the record and resend them — use the contact page on the official settlement website and be ready to supply your full name and mailing address. A printable Claim Form can also be downloaded from the settlement website and returned by mail.
What Is the Deadline?
September 29, 2026 is the date for everything a class member might want to do. Online Claim Forms are due that day, and mailed Claim Forms must be postmarked no later than that day. The Notice does not state a cutoff time or an official timezone for online submissions, so this page does not publish one.The deadline to exclude yourself from the Settlement is also September 29, 2026, and a Request for Exclusion must be postmarked by then. Objections carry the same date: a written objection must be filed with the Clerk of Court, with a copy sent to the Settlement Administrator, on or before September 29, 2026.
How Do You File a Claim?
Filing online is the fastest route. Open the official settlement website, PDLSettlement.com, go to the claim form, and sign in with the LoginID and PIN from your notice. The form then collects the information the administrator needs to identify you and issue a payment.If you would rather use paper, the Claim Form can be downloaded from the settlement website and mailed to the Settlement Administrator at the address printed on the form. The administrator will also send a Claim Form on request through the website's contact page. Whichever route you take, keep a copy of what you submit.
What If You Want Out — or Want to Object?
Opting out means you receive nothing from the settlement but keep whatever right you may have to sue PDL on your own over the same conduct. A Request for Exclusion has to be mailed to the Settlement Administrator and must include the case name and number, your full name, mailing address, telephone number and email address, your personal signature, and the words "Request for Exclusion" or a clear equivalent. You may only exclude yourself, not anyone else.Objecting is the opposite posture: you stay in the class and tell the Court why it should not approve the deal. You cannot do both — a class member who has excluded themselves cannot object. A valid objection must identify the case name and number, give your full name, mailing address, telephone number and email address, and include information showing you are a class member, which the Notice says includes an attestation that you owned the cellular telephone number associated with you in PDL's records between September 1, 2022 and March 3, 2026. It must also set out every reason you object with any supporting material, name any lawyer you have hired, disclose any prior objections you or that lawyer made in exchange for payment, list any witnesses or documents you intend to present at the hearing, and carry your own signature. The Court can excuse a defect in these requirements for good cause.
If you do nothing, you stay in the class, receive no payment, and give up the right to sue PDL over the claims released by the Settlement. Section 3 of the Settlement Agreement describes exactly what is released.
What Happens Next?
The claim, exclusion and objection windows all close September 29, 2026. The Final Approval Hearing is set for November 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, and the Notice says class members may also attend by Zoom through the judge's public hearings page. At that hearing the Court will decide whether to approve the Settlement, rule on Class Counsel's fee request, and rule on the requested service award.The Notice warns that the hearing date can move without further notice to the class, so the settlement website is the place to confirm it. Payments are distributed only if the Court grants final approval and after any appeals are resolved, and the Notice states that it is unknown whether appeals will be filed or how long they would take. A hearing being held is not approval being granted, and approval being granted is not payments being released.
The broader question the case leaves open is whether a searchable commercial database counts as a "directory" under the Colorado statute. A settlement resolves this lawsuit; it does not decide that question for the other cases pending against people-search and contact-data companies. Our explainer on the Colorado Prevention of Telemarketing Fraud Act tracks where that fight stands.
Sources and Verification
• Official settlement website — Cochrane v. People Data Labs, Inc.• Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement (PDF)
• Class Action Complaint, filed September 29, 2025, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, Case No. CGC-25-629675
• Order granting preliminary approval, entered June 30, 2026, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Case No. 3:25-cv-09533-RFL
• C.R.S. § 6-1-304 — Unlawful telemarketing practices (subsection (4), the listing provision)
• C.R.S. § 6-1-305 — Penalties and the private civil action
Questions
I never heard of People Data Labs. Can I still be in the class?
Yes. The class is defined entirely by what is in People Data Labs' own database, not by whether you ever used the company or agreed to anything. The complaint's central allegation is that the company compiled and sold Coloradans' mobile numbers without ever contacting them. Class membership turns on whether PDL's records show an inferred mobile number with a Colorado area code and an inferred Colorado location, sourced on or after September 2022 and disclosed at least once through March 3, 2026.
How much will each person actually get?
No per-person figure has been published. The $6,362,167 fund is first reduced by the cost of notice and administration, any attorney fees and litigation costs the Court awards (Class Counsel may request up to one-third of the fund), and any service award for the class representative. Whatever remains is divided equally among everyone who files a valid and timely claim, so the individual amount depends on how many people file. Equal division means every approved claimant receives the same amount, regardless of how many times a number was listed.
What is the PTFA, and why does a database trigger it?
The Colorado Prevention of Telemarketing Fraud Act is Part 3 of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. A 2005 amendment at C.R.S. § 6-1-304(4)(a)(I) makes it an unlawful telemarketing practice to knowingly list a cellular telephone number in a directory for a commercial purpose without the number owner's affirmative consent, and § 6-1-305 gives the owner of the phone a private civil action. The complaint alleges that a searchable, paid database of mobile numbers is a directory within the meaning of that provision. No court has ruled on whether that reading is correct, and PDL denies wrongdoing.
I cannot find my LoginID and PIN. What are my options?
The online claim portal will not open without both credentials, which are printed on the notice sent to class members. If you no longer have the notice, use the contact page on the official settlement website to ask the Settlement Administrator to resend your LoginID and PIN; the administrator asks for your full name and mailing address to look up the record. A printable Claim Form can also be downloaded from the settlement website and mailed in.
Does filing a claim stop People Data Labs from listing my number?
The settlement described in the Notice is a cash settlement. The Notice does not describe an injunctive term requiring PDL to remove or stop listing class members' numbers, and it does not create a suppression or opt-out process for the database itself. Filing a claim is a request for a payment; it is not a data-removal request.
When would payments be issued?
Not before the Final Approval Hearing, which is scheduled for November 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The Notice states that payments are distributed only if the Court grants final approval and after any appeals are resolved, and that it is unknown whether appeals will be filed. No payment date had been announced as of August 6, 2026.
