Is There a Class Action Lawsuit Against Venmo in 2026?
Updated August 11, 2026 · By Class Action Buddy
Short answer: No — not one you can join. The only consumer class action we can find against Venmo, Al-Ramahi v. PayPal, was terminated on 16 September 2022, three months after it was filed. There is no Venmo claim form and no payout, and every Venmo case that has produced money so far paid a state government, not users.
What to do: There is nothing to file today. Ignore any site offering to process a “2026 Venmo settlement” claim — none is open. If you were defrauded on Venmo, dispute it with Venmo in writing now; that record is what would support a claim later.
No — the one case we found is over. Al-Ramahi v. PayPal alleged that Venmo refuses to reimburse users defrauded on the app, but the federal docket records it as terminated on 16 September 2022. No class was ever certified, no settlement exists and there is no claim form.
Venmo lawsuits — the short version
| Can you claim money today? | No. No Venmo settlement is open |
| The case people mean | Al-Ramahi v. PayPal, No. 5:22-cv-03632 (N.D. Cal.), filed 21 June 2022, terminated 16 September 2022 |
| Who it would cover | Venmo users with unreimbursed fraud losses (nationwide class + California subclass) |
| Proof you would need | Your fraud report to Venmo and its denial — keep both |
| Money actually paid out | $6M to Hawaii, $1.75M to New Hampshire — none of it to users |
| Last Venmo-related consumer payout | Plaid, about $35.97 each — closed in 2022 |
Al-Ramahi v. PayPal, and how it ended
Mohammad Al-Ramahi, a San Jose resident, lost $2,450 to a scam on Venmo in April 2020. When he asked for the money back, PayPal refused. In June 2022 he sued on behalf of everyone in the same position — Al-Ramahi v. PayPal, Inc., No. 5:22-cv-03632 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, filed 21 June 2022 and docketed as an “other fraud” action.
The core allegation is narrow and worth understanding, because it decides whether you are covered: the complaint says PayPal has a blanket policy of not reimbursing users defrauded on Venmo, even when the loss is reported promptly, and that this breaches the Electronic Fund Transfer Act — the federal law requiring payment companies to investigate disputed transactions and provisionally credit the account while they do. It also alleges Venmo was marketed as a safe way to send money without disclosing the risk. The claims include breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, EFTA, and California’s Unfair Competition Law and Consumers Legal Remedies Act. The proposed classes are a nationwide class and a California subclass of consumers who incurred unreimbursed losses to fraud on Venmo, represented by Bursor & Fisher (complaint, case report).
Status: terminated on 16 September 2022, three months after filing. No class was ever certified, PayPal was not found liable, and no settlement has been announced — so nothing is claimable. Cases at this stage commonly take years, and many end with no consumer payment at all.
One distinction that catches people out: this case is about being scammed into sending money, which is different from an unauthorized transfer out of your account. If a stranger took money without your involvement, that is a straightforward EFTA dispute you should raise with Venmo directly and immediately — do not wait on a class action for it.
What regulators made Venmo pay — and who got the money
This is where most of the “Venmo settlement” headlines come from, and it is why so many people go looking for a claim form that does not exist.
- Hawaii — $6 million, 22 December 2025. The Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection settled a lawsuit it filed in December 2022 alleging PayPal deceptively advertised broad “Purchase Protection” on Venmo, privacy for users’ financial information, consistent access to funds, and platforms safe from scams. PayPal denied the claims and paid $6 million to the state (State of Hawaii).
- New Hampshire — $1.75 million, 22 December 2025. Injunctive relief requiring PayPal to tell people clearly how to access frozen funds and how to lift restrictions, plus risk-based scam warnings that state plainly you may not get your money back if you are scammed (announcement).
- The FTC — 27 February 2018. The FTC charged that Venmo told users money credited to their balance could be transferred out, without adequately disclosing it was still under review and could be frozen or removed; that it misled users about privacy settings; and that its “bank-grade security” claim was false, in violation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Safeguards and Privacy Rules. The order was injunctive only — required disclosures and ten years of biennial third-party audits, no money to consumers (FTC).
- Texas — 20 May 2016. An earlier agreement with the Texas Attorney General over Venmo’s privacy and security practices (Texas AG).
Notice the pattern: every one of these paid a government, not a user. That is normal — a regulator suing on the public’s behalf collects penalties for the state, and there is no class, no claim form and no cheque for you. It is also the single most common misunderstanding behind “Venmo settlement 2026” searches.
The one time Venmo users did get paid
There is a genuine exception, and it is useful as a benchmark. Plaid — the service that connects apps like Venmo to your bank — settled a privacy class action for $58 million, granted final approval on 20 July 2022 by Judge Donna M. Ryu in the Northern District of California (class counsel). It covered US residents who linked a bank account to apps including Venmo, Coinbase, Cash App and Stripe between 1 January 2013 and 19 November 2021.
That settlement is closed — you cannot claim from it. It paid roughly $35.97 a person. Worth knowing before you spend an afternoon chasing a Venmo payout: this is the realistic scale of a consumer fintech privacy settlement, not the hundreds of dollars promised by sites that invent numbers.
The 1099-K thing is not a lawsuit
A lot of people arrive here after reading that Venmo is being sued over tax reporting. There is no 1099-K class action. What changed was the law, repeatedly, which is why the confusion is understandable.
Congress cut the federal 1099-K reporting threshold to $600 in 2021, the IRS delayed enforcing it, applied a $5,000 threshold for 2024, and then the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 permanently restored the old threshold of more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions. Venmo reports only goods-and-services payments, not money sent between friends. Several states set lower thresholds than the federal one, so check your own state. Nobody is suing over this, and nothing about it is claimable.
What to do while nothing is open
Al-Ramahi is over, so nothing will come of it. If a future Venmo case does settle you will not have to find it yourself — a court-appointed administrator has to send notice to identifiable class members, and that notice is what a real claim starts with. Meanwhile:
- Keep the paper trail. Your fraud report to Venmo and its written denial are the documents a claim would turn on. Export them now — app history does not last forever.
- Do not pay anyone. Filing a claim is always free. Any site or caller offering to process a “2026 Venmo settlement” is running a scam, because no such settlement exists.
- For the mechanics of joining a class action when one does open, see our Venmo sign-up guide.
- Confusing this with settlements that pay out via Venmo? Those are a different thing entirely — see settlements that pay by Venmo.
- Venmo is owned by PayPal, and several of these matters name both — our PayPal guide covers the parent company.
- Bookmark our open settlements list for what is genuinely filable right now, and our no-proof guide for claims that need no receipt.
Reviewed by the Class Action Buddy team · last verified 7 August 2026.
Case details were checked against primary records rather than summaries: the docket for Al-Ramahi v. PayPal (No. 5:22-cv-03632, N.D. Cal., filed 21 June 2022) via CourtListener, the FTC’s own 2018 order, and the State of Hawaii’s December 2025 announcement. An earlier version of this page listed a “1099-K threshold” case; we could find no such lawsuit in any source, so it was removed rather than repeated.
We build claim-filing software, so we see where these go wrong in practice: the detail that decides a fraud-related claim is almost always the written denial from the platform, and people routinely cannot produce it because in-app message history is not permanent. Export it the day you get it. Class Action Buddy is a self-service tool that helps you complete and submit official claim forms — it is not a law firm, does not give legal advice, and does not file on your behalf.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a Venmo settlement payout in 2026?
No. Al-Ramahi v. PayPal was terminated on 16 September 2022, so there is no fund, no approved payout and no claim form. The state settlements you may have read about — $6 million in Hawaii and $1.75 million in New Hampshire, both in December 2025 — were paid to those states, not to Venmo users.
How much is the Venmo class action payout per person?
Nothing has been awarded, so any per-person figure you see quoted is invented. For scale, the closest comparable case that did pay Venmo users was the $58 million Plaid privacy settlement, which worked out at roughly $35.97 each — and it closed in 2022.
What is the official Venmo class action website?
There isn’t one, because no settlement has been approved. A real settlement always has a court-appointed administrator with its own official site, and you would be notified rather than having to hunt for it. Until that exists, any site collecting your details for a “Venmo claim” is not legitimate.
Am I covered by the Venmo fraud lawsuit?
The proposed class is Venmo users who lost money to fraud on the app and were not reimbursed — a nationwide class plus a California subclass. No class has been certified yet, so nobody is formally a member. If that describes you, keep your fraud report to Venmo and its denial; those are the documents a claim would rest on.
Does the Venmo Plaid settlement still accept claims?
No. The Plaid settlement received final approval on 20 July 2022 and has paid out. It covered people who linked a bank account to apps including Venmo between 1 January 2013 and 19 November 2021, but the claim window is long closed and cannot be reopened.
Is Venmo being sued over 1099-K tax reporting?
No — that is a persistent myth. The 1099-K threshold changed by legislation, not litigation: the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently restored the $20,000-and-200-transaction federal threshold. Venmo reports only goods-and-services payments, never money sent between friends.
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