Costa Del Mar $23.9M Repair Fee Settlement Pays Automatically

Costa Del Mar has agreed to fund a $23,900,000 settlement over the fees it charged to repair or replace damaged sunglasses. This one is unusual: there is no claim form and no claim deadline. Every settlement class member who does nothing is scheduled to receive a pro rata cash payment for each qualifying repair. The only dates that require action are the exclusion and objection deadlines, both October 26, 2026. Costa denies any wrongdoing or liability.

Table of Contents

• What is the Costa Del Mar settlement about?
• Who qualifies?
• How much can you get?
• What do you have to do?
• What are the deadlines?
• What happens next?

What is the Costa Del Mar settlement about?

The court certified this lawsuit as a class action in 2025 and notice went out then to tell class members the case existed. A second round of notice is going out now for a different reason: the parties reached a settlement, and it puts real dates on the calendar for the first time.

If you received a Costa notice years ago and assumed the matter was resolved, it was not. An earlier settlement that combined three Costa lawsuits, including Smith v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Case No. 3:18-cv-1011, was vacated on appeal in Smith v. Miorelli, 93 F.4th 1206 (11th Cir. 2024). The settlement website for this case confirms that the Smith settlement is no longer in effect. The agreement described here is a separate, later deal reached in the Reed case.

Costa denies any wrongdoing or liability, and the court has not decided the merits of the claims or Costa’s defenses.

Who qualifies?

You are a settlement class member if you are a citizen of the United States, you purchased nonprescription, non-promotional Costa sunglasses before January 1, 2018, and Costa charged you a fee between April 3, 2015 and January 28, 2026 to repair or replace components of those sunglasses that Costa determined were damaged by accident, normal wear and tear, or misuse.

Two limits matter. First, the repair fee must have exceeded $11.95 — a repair billed at or below that figure does not qualify. Second, the class excludes Florida residents, who the notice says are covered by a settlement in a separate lawsuit, Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc.

Prescription lenses and promotional pairs are outside the class definition, as are repairs Costa performed under a different arrangement than the damage categories above. Also excluded are Costa itself along with its controlled affiliates and specified related persons, and judicial staff assigned to the case.

How much can you get?

No per-person or per-repair dollar figure has been published, and the amount depends on arithmetic that is not finished yet. Payments are pro rata: the administrator first pays attorneys’ fees and expenses and administration costs out of the $23,900,000 fund, then divides what is left among qualifying repairs, one share per repair. A class member who paid for three qualifying repairs is paid three times.

Two figures give a rough sense of scale, and both come with caveats. Class counsel is asking the court to award $5,736,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses — the court may award less. And the notice states that Costa performed approximately 494,000 sunglass repairs during the class period.

If the full fee request is granted, roughly $18.2 million would remain before administration costs, which spread across all 494,000 repairs would be about $36 each. Treat that as an illustration rather than an estimate of your payment: the 494,000 figure counts every repair Costa performed, including repairs for Florida residents and repairs billed at $11.95 or less, none of which are paid here. Because the number of qualifying repairs is smaller than 494,000, the actual per-repair share should be higher — by how much is not something the published materials answer.

Anything left in the net settlement fund after distribution goes to the American Saltwater Guides Association, subject to court approval — a cy pres recipient rather than a reversion to Costa.

What do you have to do?

Nothing is required to be paid. This is an automatic-payment settlement: the administrator already identified the class from Costa’s own repair records, so there is no documentation to submit, no receipts to dig up and no code you have to enter to secure your share.

There is one optional step. The official settlement website has a payment-selection page where you can choose how you would like to be paid, and that page is gated on the unique ID and PIN printed in the email or postcard notice sent to you. Missing that notice does not cost you the payment — it only means you do not get to pick the payment method, and the administrator issues it by its default route instead.

One thing genuinely is your responsibility: keeping your address current. If your mailing or email address changes before payments are issued, tell the administrator through the official settlement website so the payment reaches you.

What are the deadlines?

There is no claim deadline, because there is no claim. The deadlines that exist are for class members who want out of the settlement or who want to tell the court they disagree with it, and both fall on October 26, 2026.

To exclude yourself, a written, personally signed request must reach the administrator by that date. Exclusion cannot be done by telephone or email, and the notice says group or “mass” opt-outs filed by a third party on behalf of multiple class members are not allowed unless each individual signed.

To object, a written objection must be filed with the court by October 26, 2026 and sent by U.S. mail to class counsel and Costa’s counsel, received by the same date. The objection has to identify the case by name and number, give your name, mailing address, telephone number and signature, state the basis for the objection, and say whether you intend to appear at the hearing. Objecting and excluding yourself are mutually exclusive: you can only object if you stay in the class.

The notice gives all of these as calendar dates and does not specify a timezone, so no time-of-day cutoff is published.

What happens next?

The next milestone is the final approval hearing on December 14, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr. at the George C. Young Federal Annex Courthouse in Orlando. At that hearing the court will consider whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate, will rule on class counsel’s fee request, and will hear from any objectors who filed on time and asked to speak.

The notice cautions that the hearing date and time can change without further notice and that the court may hold it by video or telephone, so the settlement website is the place to confirm it. You are not required to attend, and an objection filed on time is considered whether or not you show up.

If the court grants final approval, payments follow after the judgment becomes final — which can be delayed if anyone appeals. No payment date has been announced. A hearing being scheduled is not approval, and approval would not by itself mean checks have been released.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to file a claim?

No. There is no claim form and no claim deadline. The administrator identified the class from Costa’s own repair records, and class members who do nothing are scheduled to be paid automatically after the court approves the settlement.

I live in Florida. Am I covered?

No. The class excludes Florida residents, who the notice says are covered by a settlement in a separate lawsuit, Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc.

My repair fee was $11.95 or less. Does it count?

No. The repair fee must have exceeded $11.95 to qualify. A repair billed at or below that figure is not a qualifying repair.

I paid for several repairs. Do I get paid more than once?

Yes. Payments are one pro rata share per qualifying repair, so a class member who paid for three qualifying repairs is paid three times.

I never received a notice. Will I still be paid?

Missing the notice does not cost you the payment. The notice’s unique ID and PIN only gate the optional payment-selection page; without them the administrator issues the payment by its default route. Keeping your address current with the administrator is the step that matters.

Sources

• Costa Del Mar $23.9M Sunglasses Repair Settlement on OpenClassActions.com — the full settlement breakdown, including the per-repair math and the vacated Smith settlement history.
• Official settlement website — Costa Repairs Class Action — home page, FAQs and the Documents page (settlement agreement, class notice, fee motion), administered by Epiq.
• Official class notice for Reed v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Case No. 6:19-cv-1751-RBD-LHP, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
• Smith v. Miorelli, 93 F.4th 1206 (11th Cir. 2024) — the appellate decision that vacated the earlier combined Costa settlement.

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