Equinox Data Breach Settlement: A State Filing Puts the Number Notified at 21,565 — the $685,000 Fund Works Out to About $31.76 Each Before Fees, and Claims Are Due October 23, 2026

The number that was missing from every document on the settlement site is in a state filing. When Equinox, Inc. reported the breach to the Maine Attorney General, its outside counsel entered: “Total number of persons affected (including residents): 21565.” Two of them lived in Maine. The same report gives the timeline: the breach occurred on April 29, 2024, was discovered on September 16, 2024, and is described as an “External system breach (hacking).” Written notices went out on November 15, 2024 — 200 days after the incident, by our count. Equinox lists itself in that filing as a healthcare organization at 500 Central Avenue in Albany, New York; it is not the fitness chain.

The settlement itself has not changed. The agreement fixes the fund at “a non-reversionary common fund in the amount of $685,000.00,” and Equinox “shall not be required to pay any more money under this Settlement.” As of October 20, 2026, the official site lists the claim deadline as October 23, 2026 — online, or postmarked by that date if you mail the form — and the Final Approval Hearing on November 12, 2026. The exclusion and objection deadline was September 23, 2026.

Spread across everyone notified, $685,000 is $31.76 a person. That is before anything comes out. The notice says class counsel will ask for up to one-third of the fund, $228,333.33, plus expenses, and the two class representatives up to $2,500.00 each, $5,000 in total. If the court grants both in full, $451,666.67 remains, or $20.94 per notified person — still before administration costs, credit monitoring and documented-loss claims, none of which has a published price (our arithmetic throughout).

The cash payment is whatever is left. The notice describes it as “dividing remaining funds in the Settlement Fund, after payment of Settlement Administration Fees, Attorneys’ Fees, Costs, and Expenses, Credit Monitoring and Identity Restoration Services, and Documented Monetary Losses by the number of eligible claims,” adjusted “upwards or downwards based upon the number of valid claims filed.” At $100 a claim, $451,666.67 covers about 4,500 claimants — about one in five of the 21,565, or 20.9 percent. If more people than that file for cash, the $100 estimate cannot hold, and it would come down further once administration, monitoring and documented losses are paid. If fewer file, the payment can go up, because the fund is non-reversionary and the money does not go back to Equinox. Neither the claim count nor the administration cost has been published as of October 20, 2026.

The other two benefits do not depend on that division in the same way. Documented losses are reimbursed up to $5,000.00 per person with “reasonable documentation” — credit monitoring you paid for on or after April 29, 2024, unreimbursed fraud or identity theft losses, bank fees, long-distance phone charges, postage or mileage. A documented claim that is rejected and not cured “will be treated as if he or she elected a Pro Rata Cash Payment only.” Credit monitoring runs three years, one bureau, with dark web monitoring, identity theft insurance up to $1,000,000.00 and managed identity recovery.

How to check for a data breach? For this settlement, the test is a letter. The class is people who reside in the United States and “were sent a notice by Equinox that your Private Information may have been impacted by the Data Incident.” The 2024 letters went out on November 15, 2024; the settlement postcard carries a Notice ID, which the claim form asks for, “found on postcard notice.” If you cannot find it, the form says to contact the administrator: 1-844-943-4276 or info@EquinoxIncSettlement.com. The official site lists the exposed data as names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, health insurance information, medical treatment or diagnosis information, medication-related information, financial information, provider name and MRN/patient ID.

To claim, file online at EquinoxIncSettlement.com or mail the form, postmarked no later than October 23, 2026, to Equinox Settlement Administrator, Attn: Claim Form Submissions, 1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210, Philadelphia, PA 19103. Choose PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, a virtual prepaid card or a physical check. If you want the documented-loss payment, attach proof.

One detail from the Maine filing matters for documented losses. The 2024 letters offered “IDX, 12 months, and includes credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, and an identity theft insurance policy.” That coverage, counted from the November 15, 2024 notice, ran out around November 2025 by our count; the settlement’s three years of monitoring is a new benefit, not an extension. But the notice excludes anything already paid back, “including compensation provided in connection with the credit monitoring and identity theft protection product offered as part of the notification letter.” Claim only costs nobody has reimbursed.

Money comes later. Payments are issued only “after the Settlement is approved and becomes Final.” Under the agreement, payment is due “within thirty (30) days of the Effective Date, or within twenty-one (21) days of the date that the claim is approved, whichever is later,” and credit monitoring codes go out within 30 days of the Effective Date. A claim with a defect gets 21 days to cure, and no extension can run past 90 days from the Effective Date.

The genuine settlement uses one website, EquinoxIncSettlement.com, one toll-free number, 1-844-943-4276, and the email address info@EquinoxIncSettlement.com; its documents are hosted by Angeion Group. Nothing in the notice or the claim form charges a fee to file. A message that asks for money, a banking password, or sends you to a different domain is not from the administrator — call the number above and give your Notice ID instead. Filing has a legal effect: per the official site, if you submit a claim “you will give up the right to sue Equinox and certain other Released Parties.”

How much is Equifax breach settlement per person? Equifax is a different company with its own settlement and its own official site, EquifaxBreachSettlement.com, which says it “Is Operated By The Settlement Administrator, Not By Equifax” — the administrator is JND. Nothing on this page, including the $100 estimate, applies to Equifax. Searches for a Workday data breach or a Blue Cross Blue Shield security breach also land here; this settlement covers only people who were sent a notice by Equinox, Inc., so for those companies, look for their own notice letters and official settlement sites.

Justice Richard Platkin’s preliminary approval order directs that, once the opt-out and objection deadline passed, class counsel “shall promptly file a motion for final approval of the proposed settlement, the proposed service awards, and the proposed attorney’s fees and cost awards.” As of October 20, 2026, the official site still shows six documents, and none of them is a final approval motion or a fee application; we could not check the state court’s electronic docket. The hearing is set for November 12, 2026 at 11:00 AM, and the notice warns that the date and time are “subject to change without further notice to the Settlement Class.”

One trigger has already passed. The agreement let Equinox walk away if more than 500 people asked to be excluded “within ten (10) days after the Opt-Out Date” — that is, by October 3, 2026, by our count. No opt-out count has been published, and as of October 20, 2026 the site still lists the hearing. Equinox denies the claims; the notice says the case “has not gone to trial, and the Court has not decided in favor of” either side. Equinox has also adopted security changes, which it will describe only in a confidential declaration. Class counsel are Todd S. Garber of Finkelstein, Blankinship, Frei-Pearson & Garber, LLP and David K. Lietz of Milberg PLLC. For how fees and claim rates usually move a final payment, see our data breach settlement calculator; for the full terms, our earlier report on the signed agreement.