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2026 Website & App Privacy Litigation Report
Data from 116 US class action settlements shows which laws, industries, and trackers drive website and app privacy payouts, and why they keep rising.
US companies are on pace to pay more than $1.4 billion in 2026 to settle claims that their websites and mobile apps shared personal data without proper consent, up 36% from 2025. Privacy lawsuit filings have grown from roughly 200 in 2022 to a projected 3,500 this year, and the average settlement now stands at $6.7 million.
The cause is not the new state privacy laws. CCPA and its counterparts can be enforced only by regulators, while wiretapping laws from the 1960s let any individual sue for fixed damages per violation. This report analyzes 116 class action settlements from January 2025 to August 2026, plus litigation trends since 2022, to show where settlements come from and where the risk is heading.
What's in the report
- How settlement volume, total payouts, and average amounts have grown since 2022
- Which laws drive settlements: the Federal Wiretap Act appears in 53% of 2026 settlements, and CIPA in 43%, up from 20% in 2025
- Which industries and trackers carry the most risk: healthcare is 64% of settlements, technology averages $26.8M per settlement, and Meta's pixel is named in 91% of settlements that identified a tracker
- Why app tracking pays more: settlements with app tracking allegations paid 3.5X more than website-only cases
- What California's SB 690 changes and what it leaves intact, plus the most common reasons companies with a consent management platform still get sued
Download the report to see the full dataset, including the defendant, amount, laws alleged, and trackers named for all 116 settlements.
