The $152.2 million canned tuna price-fixing settlement is finally paying claimants. Judge Dana M. Sabraw signed an order authorizing distribution on July 27, 2026 — almost two years after the settlements were approved — and money has been moving to people whose claims were already on file since then.
Status: Payments in progress | Claim deadline December 31, 2024 — passed | No late-claim process announced
What the July 27 Order Did
The order came out of In re Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, No. 15-MD-2670 DMS (MSB), in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Judge Sabraw authorized the administrator to distribute the end-purchaser settlement funds after finding two things: that every settling defendant had paid its settlement amount in full, and that the appeals were exhausted.
Trade press covering the order reported that JND Legal Administration would begin distributing within 30 days of it, and that a claimant would have 60 days to cash a check before it was canceled. Our sister site has the full breakdown of the order and the payment reports in $152.2M Tuna Settlement Payments Are Going Out.
Nothing new needs to be filed. The claim window closed on December 31, 2024, and this distribution reaches only claims that were submitted and approved before that date.
Who Is Being Paid
This was never a nationwide class. It covered people who indirectly bought cans or pouches of tuna smaller than 40 ounces for personal consumption — not for resale — between June 1, 2011 and July 1, 2015, and who lived in one of these jurisdictions:
Arizona, Arkansas, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Claims filed in the earlier Chicken of the Sea settlement carried forward, so anyone who filed there did not have to file a second time. Businesses that bought tuna straight from the producers fell under a separate direct purchaser settlement, not this one. The eligibility terms and the covered states are laid out in full on the $152.2M tuna end purchaser settlement page.
How Much the Payments Are
The court-approved notice estimated roughly $0.12 per can, or about $24.50 for every 200 cans and pouches claimed. That was always an estimate, and two things move the real number:
- The net fund, not the headline. $152.2 million is the gross value of three settlements combined, before the fees, costs, service awards and administration expenses the court approved came out of it.
- Pro rata, not a fixed rate. What is left is divided across the total purchase volume represented in every approved claim. A larger claim pool means a smaller per-can figure, and the reverse is also true.
The notice also said no payment would be issued where a claimant’s total came to less than $5.
Why Some People Report $1,600 Payments
Reports of payments in the $1,600 range and higher have been circulating. Those are claimant reports. No official per-claim schedule has been published, and OpenClassActions has not confirmed a figure like that with the administrator, so nobody should treat it as a rate to expect.
Two very different things can produce a number that size:
- A very large claimed purchase history. Payment is proportional to the volume a claimant put on the form. At the notice’s estimate, $1,600 works out to somewhere near 13,000 cans — which is not a household grocery total.
- A per-can rate above the estimate. That happens when fewer valid claims arrive than the administrator planned for, leaving the same net fund split across a smaller pool.
Nothing published so far settles which of those is driving the reports. A normal household claim should not be expected to land anywhere near four figures.
How the Payment Arrives — and How to Spot a Fake
Class members are describing both mailed paper checks and electronic payments landing in payment apps. Which electronic services the administrator is using for this particular distribution has not been independently confirmed, so a payment notification arriving by email or inside an app should be treated as unverified until it is checked against the official settlement website.
Large, well-publicized payouts attract impostors, and the tells do not change:
- A real settlement payment never requires a fee to release it.
- It never needs a bank login or an online banking password.
- It never asks for a full Social Security number over email.
Anyone who receives a paper check should also note the void date printed on it — reporting on the distribution order describes a 60-day window to cash it.
Why It Took Almost Two Years
The StarKist and Lion Capital settlements received final approval on November 22, 2024, and claims closed weeks later. That is normally the point at which money starts moving. It did not here, for two reasons.
First, the court held the funds until every settling defendant had actually paid its full amount and every appeal was resolved, rather than releasing money that might have to be clawed back. Second, the administrator had to validate an unusually large claim pool — reporting on the case puts it near a million claims — before any per-can allocation could be calculated at all. The July 27 order is the point at which both conditions were finally satisfied.
Where the $152.2 Million Came From
The end-purchaser total is three settlements stacked together:
| StarKist | $130 million |
| Lion Capital (private equity owner associated with Bumble Bee) | $6 million |
| Chicken of the Sea / Thai Union (earlier settlement) | $16.2 million |
The underlying allegation was that packaged tuna producers conspired between June 2011 and July 2015 to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize prices. The criminal side resolved separately and is a matter of record: StarKist was fined $100 million, Bumble Bee $25 million, and former Bumble Bee chief executive Chris Lischewski was convicted and sentenced to prison. We covered that criminal track in our writeup of the Bumble Bee Foods tuna price-fixing prosecution, and the consumer case in the StarKist tuna price-fixing consumer settlement. The civil settlements themselves resolved the claims without the settling parties admitting wrongdoing.
Consumers in some states were also reached by earlier, smaller deals arising from the same conduct, including a $20 million StarKist consumer settlement and a $40.6 million Washington state refund program. Grocery price-fixing cases keep landing in the same posture — see the $117 million pork price-fixing settlement, which reaches consumers in 24 states with no receipts required.
What Claimants Should Do Now
- Watch the mail and the email address used to file. Payments are going to the contact information on the claim.
- Keep the confirmation from the 2024 filing or the earlier Chicken of the Sea process.
- Update a stale address through the administrator’s own channel on the official settlement website. A check mailed to an old address is the most common way a valid claim goes unpaid.
- Check the official site before responding to anything that asks for information.
OpenClassActions cannot look up an individual claim, change purchase data or predict an award.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still file a claim in the tuna settlement?
No. The claim deadline was December 31, 2024 and it has passed. Only people whose claims were on file and approved by the administrator are in this distribution, and no late-claim process has been announced.
How much is the tuna settlement payment?
The court-approved notice estimated roughly $0.12 per can, or about $24.50 for every 200 cans or pouches claimed. The final per-can figure depends on the net fund after approved fees, costs and administration, and on the volume represented in all approved claims. No payment is issued where a claimant’s total comes to less than $5.
Why are some people reporting $1,600 tuna settlement payments?
Those are claimant reports, not an official figure — no per-claim schedule has been published. A payment is proportional to the purchase volume on the claim form, so a very large claimed history produces a large payment by itself; at the notice’s estimate, $1,600 is near 13,000 cans. It is also possible the actual per-can rate came in above the estimate because fewer valid claims arrived than planned.
When did the court clear the tuna settlement payments?
Judge Dana M. Sabraw signed the distribution order on July 27, 2026, after finding that the settling defendants had paid in full and that the appeals were exhausted. Reporting on that order said the administrator would begin distributing within 30 days and that claimants would have 60 days to cash a check.
Why did the tuna settlement take almost two years to pay?
The StarKist and Lion settlements were approved on November 22, 2024, but the court held the money until every settling defendant had paid in full and every appeal was resolved. The administrator also had to validate a claim pool reported to be near a million claims before any allocation could be calculated.
How will the tuna settlement payment arrive?
Class members describe both mailed checks and electronic payments. Which electronic services the administrator is using has not been independently confirmed, so treat an unexpected email or app notification as unverified until you check the official settlement website. A legitimate settlement payment never requires a fee, a bank login or a full Social Security number sent by email.
Case Details
| Case title | In re Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation |
| Case number | 15-MD-2670 DMS (MSB) |
| Court | U.S. District Court, Southern District of California |
| Judge | Dana M. Sabraw |
| Administrator | JND Legal Administration |
| Combined settlements | $152.2 million |
| Final approval | November 22, 2024 |
| Distribution order | July 27, 2026 |
| Claim deadline | December 31, 2024 — passed |
| Estimated payment | About $0.12 per can (~$24.50 per 200 cans), pro rata |
| Official website | Tuna End Purchaser Settlement |
Sources
- Order authorizing distribution, In re Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation, No. 15-MD-2670 DMS (MSB), U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, signed July 27, 2026.
- Official Tuna End Purchaser Settlement website — court-approved notice, claim form and key dates.
- SeafoodSource, “Court issues order to disburse USD 152.2 million related to tuna price-fixing lawsuits,” July 2026.
- Undercurrent News, “US judge clears $152.2m tuna price-fixing settlement distribution,” July 28, 2026.
- OpenClassActions.com, “$152.2M Tuna Settlement Payments Are Going Out” and the $152.2M tuna end purchaser settlement page.
By Felix Levine | Published: September 8, 2026
Legal Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. OpenClassActions.org is a consumer news site, not a law firm, and is not affiliated with StarKist, Bumble Bee Foods, Chicken of the Sea, Thai Union, Lion Capital, JND Legal Administration or any party to the case described. Consult a licensed attorney about your own situation.