Dun & Bradstreet Refund Checks: Who Gets Paid

If your business got an envelope marked “ABOUT YOUR PURCHASE FROM DUN & BRADSTREET,” open it and deposit the check inside: under a federal court order, refund checks carry a 180-day cash-by notice, and the company can void any check still uncashed 187 days after mailing. Dun & Bradstreet must return $3,710,376.29 to small business customers. Nobody files a claim. D&B has to find eligible customers in its own records and pay them directly, either as a credit to the card on file or by mailed check.

Status: Stipulated order entered January 14, 2026 | No claim form — refunds paid directly by D&B | Checks: cash within 180 days

What to Check Now

Your card or account statements. If D&B has a credit card or other payment method on file, the refund is credited there, not mailed.
Your mail, including anything set aside as junk. If a credit is not possible, the order requires a first-class letter on D&B letterhead with only a refund check inside. The envelope must say ABOUT YOUR PURCHASE FROM DUN & BRADSTREET, and the letter must explain the refund is being sent under a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission.
The date on the check. D&B had 180 days from January 14, 2026, roughly until July 13, 2026, to notify and refund the customers it had identified by then. Checks mailed near the end of that window begin to expire around January 2027.

D&B’s duty to find customers does not end with the first round. The order sets a “Redress Period” running to January 14, 2027, and customers identified later in that year must be paid within 30 days of being identified. Undeliverable mail must be re-sent to a corrected address within 15 days.

Two Groups of Eligible Customers

A business qualifies if it falls into either group the order defines:

Overcharged auto-renewals	Auto-renewed a D&B product at a rate above list price between April 6, 2022 and December 31, 2023	The difference between list price and what was charged, minus any earlier refund. Pool capped at $1,210,376.29
Telesales purchases	Bought a D&B product on a telesales call from April 6, 2022 through January 14, 2026	An equal share of $2,500,000, so each payment shrinks as more customers are identified

The auto-renewal cap includes about $924,590 in refund checks D&B says it sent voluntarily in April 2024. A customer who got one of those earlier checks has that amount subtracted from any new refund.

Where the Money Comes From

The case is United States v. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., No. 3:25-cv-01158, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division. The Justice Department filed it on a referral from the FTC, which voted 3-0 to refer the complaint and approve the stipulated order. The government announced the resolution as $5.7 million in total.

That total has two parts:

A civil penalty of $2,063,090, payable to the Treasurer of the United States within 14 days. The Justice Department’s announcement rounds it to $2,063,000. This money does not go to customers.
An equitable monetary judgment of $2,785,786, which D&B pays by refunding its own customers instead of paying the government. Together with the roughly $924,590 already refunded, customers are owed $3,710,376.29 in total.

Money that never reaches customers does not go back to D&B. Any undistributed part of the $3,710,376.29 must be wired to the government within 45 days after the refund program ends and deposited as an additional civil penalty. D&B must also report the results under penalty of perjury: how many customers it identified, how much it calculated each was owed, how many checks it mailed and how many were cashed.

Why D&B Is Paying

This case enforces a 2022 FTC order that came out of an earlier action over how D&B sold and corrected small business credit reports. That order required D&B to disclose certain facts before auto-renewing a paid subscription. It also barred D&B from using auto-renewal to move a subscriber to a pricier product they had not ordered, barred misrepresenting a product’s price or features, and required the company to keep recordings of telemarketing calls.

The new complaint alleged D&B broke that order in three ways:

sending some customers renewal notices that did not accurately state the list price before an automatic renewal;
failing to stop sales staff from telling prospects that buying a paid product would help improve their business credit score; and
failing to keep voice recordings of oral offers, as the 2022 order required.

D&B neither admitted nor denied the allegations, and they have not been proven in court. The credit-score pitch is the point small businesses may care about most. According to the complaint, D&B employees told prospective customers that a fee-based product would help improve their business credit score. This is the second time the FTC has objected to how D&B described what its paid products do.

New Rules for the Company

According to the FTC, D&B also agreed to changes to the 2022 order. It must:

keep a third-party quality assurance provider monitoring telemarketing staff for misrepresentations;
run a comprehensive compliance program;
have company leadership certify compliance every year; and
notify the FTC within 60 days of any compliance failure involving certain auto-renewals, problems updating trade data, or record retention.

The order and the government’s announcements are on the FTC case page. OpenClassActions.com explains the refund program in its Dun & Bradstreet refund report.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to file a claim for a Dun & Bradstreet refund?

No. The order makes Dun & Bradstreet responsible for identifying eligible customers from its own records and refunding them directly. There is no claim form, settlement website or administrator.

Who is eligible for a Dun & Bradstreet refund?

Customers who auto-renewed a D&B product above list price between April 6, 2022 and December 31, 2023, and customers who bought a D&B product on a telesales call from April 6, 2022 through January 14, 2026.

How much will my Dun & Bradstreet refund be?

Overcharged auto-renewal customers get the gap between list price and what they paid, less any earlier refund, from a pool capped at $1,210,376.29. Telesales purchasers split $2,500,000 evenly, so the amount depends on how many are identified.

How long do I have to cash the check?

Each check must say it should be cashed or deposited within 180 days, and D&B may void any check not negotiated 187 days after it was mailed.

What happens to refunds nobody collects?

Undistributed money must be sent to the U.S. government within 45 days after the refund program ends and deposited with the Treasury as an additional civil penalty. It does not go back to Dun & Bradstreet.

Sources

Source and credit: this report builds on our sister site’s coverage — OpenClassActions.com: Dun & Bradstreet Must Refund $3.7 Million to Small Business Customers — There Is No Claim Form — which follows the case and is updated as new filings, orders and payment news come in.

Legal Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. OpenClassActions.org is a consumer news site, not a law firm, and is not affiliated with any party to the matters described. Allegations are allegations until a court rules on them, and court schedules and outcomes can change.