Neutrogena Skin360 Face-Scan Settlement: $4.7 Million for People Who Used the App in Illinois — Claim Deadline November 25, 2026. The Lawyers’ Estimate Is About $769 Each, but Only If 35% of an Estimated 11,000 Users Claim.

Yes. As of October 12, 2026, the Neutrogena class action that is open for claims is Melzer v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. in federal court in New Jersey, and it covers one thing: the Skin360 skin-assessment tool. The settlement class, in the court-approved wording, is anyone who, “while in Illinois, performed a Skin360® skin assessment using any version of Skin360®, including Neutrogena® Skin360®, NeoStrata® Skin360®, and any Skin360® collaborations with other entities … whether via mobile application or web application, between December 9, 2019 and May 5, 2023.” It does not matter whether you used the phone app or the website. What matters is that you were physically in Illinois when you scanned your face.

The company pays $4,700,000.00 into a fund. The fund is non-reversionary: none of it goes back to Kenvue. Judge Michael A. Shipp granted preliminary approval in an order filed on August 12, 2026 (Dkt. 93). That order set the claim deadline at 105 days later, November 25, 2026, and the opt-out and objection deadline at 90 days, November 10, 2026. The settlement is not final. The court decides at a hearing on December 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern in Courtroom 5W of the Clarkson S. Fisher courthouse in Trenton.

What the plaintiffs allege, according to the official notice: Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (now Kenvue Brands LLC) “violated BIPA by collecting, storing, disclosing, and profiting from the biometric identifiers and/or biometric information of individuals who scanned their faces during a Skin360® skin assessment without first providing the requisite disclosures or obtaining the requisite consent, and without publicly disclosing a data retention policy.” The company denies it. In the notice’s words, it “maintains it did not collect, store, disclose, or profit from any individual’s biometric identifiers and/or biometric information.” No court has decided who is right.

Every approved claimant gets the same amount. Nobody is paid per scan or per day of use. The official FAQ says the amount “is unknown at this time” because it depends on the number of valid claims and on the fees the court approves. The only figures on record come from the February 17, 2026 motion for preliminary approval. In it, the parties “estimate the class size at 11,000 Class Members,” and class counsel wrote that, if fees and awards are approved, “even assuming a 35% claims rate, claiming Settlement Class Members will receive approximately $769.” They described that as about 77% of the $1,000 in statutory damages BIPA allows for a negligent violation.

Here is where the $4.7 million goes first, using the requests on file. Counsel will seek up to one-third for fees, $1,566,666.66, plus about $50,000 in costs. The administrator estimated its costs at about $100,000. The four class representatives may each request up to $5,000, or $20,000 in total. By our arithmetic, that leaves roughly $2.96 million. Divided among 3,850 claimants (35% of 11,000), that comes to about $769, which matches counsel’s figure. If every one of the 11,000 estimated class members claimed, it would be about $269 each. If fewer than 35% file, each share is larger. Both the class size and the claims rate are estimates; the actual number of claims has not been published.

Timing depends on final approval, not on when you file. Under the settlement agreement, the administrator pays “within twenty-one (21) days of the Effective Date”, which is the date the approval becomes final once any appeals are over. The FAQ warns that appeals “could take more than a year.” So no payment can go out before the December 17, 2026 hearing. The earliest realistic window is early 2027, and only if nobody appeals. You choose how to be paid on the claim form: Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, a prepaid digital Mastercard, or a paper check. Checks “will expire and become void 90 days after they are issued, and no replacement check will be issued for expired checks.” Money from uncashed payments is redistributed to the class. Anything left after that goes to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the cy pres recipient named in the agreement.

To get paid: file a claim online at Skin360BIPASettlement.com by November 25, 2026. You can also ask the administrator for a paper form and mail it postmarked by that date. The form asks for your name and contact details, the dates you used Skin360, and, if you no longer live in Illinois, the dates you were there. It also asks for a “Settlement Claim ID (If Available)”. The ID is in the notice email, but you can file without one. The administrator “may request” proof of identity or proof that you were in Illinois when you used Skin360, such as travel documents or records of other purchases in Illinois. You get one claim per person, and duplicates are rejected. If a claim is rejected, the form says you will be notified and given a chance to fix it.

To keep your right to sue on your own: send a signed exclusion letter by mail to P.O. Box 3116, Baton Rouge, LA 70821, postmarked by November 10, 2026, or email it to info@Skin360BIPASettlement.com by that date. The letter must include the case name and number, your contact details, a statement that you used Skin360 in Illinois during the class period, and a statement that you want to be excluded. If you send both a claim and an exclusion, the exclusion is void and the claim is processed. To object to the settlement or the fee request, file a written objection that reaches the court in Trenton by November 10, 2026, and send copies as the FAQ describes.

If you do nothing, you get no money but are still bound by the release if the court approves the deal. Separately from the cash, Kenvue must confirm within 14 days after the Effective Date that it has deleted images from Skin360 assessments made during the class period. It must also keep a user notice, a written consent step and a retention-and-destruction policy for Skin360.

The settlement agreement provides for notice in four ways: email to addresses found in the company’s own records, the settlement website, geo-targeted online ads, and a statewide press release. Class members who have not filed will get a reminder email before the deadline. A genuine notice comes from the “Skin360 BIPA Settlement Administrator,” names the case Helene Melzer, et al., v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., No. 3:22-cv-03149, and gives you a personal Settlement ID. So an email like this is not suspicious in itself. The safer habit is to type the address yourself instead of clicking. The official site is Skin360BIPASettlement.com. Its “Submit a Claim” button leads to the administrator’s claim portal at skin360bipasettlement.pnclassaction.com.

The administrator’s contact details are 1-888-706-4337, info@Skin360BIPASettlement.com and Skin360 BIPA Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 3116, Baton Rouge, LA 70821. The website is run under the name Eisner Advisory Group LLC. The notice asks people not to contact the court, the clerk or the company about the settlement. A message that tells you to call a different number, pay to release funds, or that arrives as a text from an unknown sender does not match any notice method in the agreement.

For Skin360 the dispute is biometric privacy. The tool, “launched as a mobile software application on December 9, 2019, which was discontinued on or about April 20, 2023,” according to the motion, had users line up their face in a mapping interface on their phone or webcam to get a skin analysis. Helene Melzer filed suit on May 26, 2022. On April 26, 2023 the court partly denied the company’s first motion to dismiss and rejected the argument that a biometric identifier must be used to identify someone. On March 7, 2025 the court denied a second motion, holding “that individuals who used the virtual Skin360 technology are not ‘patient[s]’ under BIPA’s health care exemption.” The parties then mediated on August 5, 2025 before retired Judge Wayne Andersen of JAMS in Chicago, which led to this settlement. BIPA statutory damages are $1,000 or $5,000 per violation, with $1,000 the figure for a negligent one. The company argued that the most the class could ever recover was $1,000 per person, or about $11,000,000. Plaintiffs noted that the Illinois Supreme Court has called BIPA damages discretionary.

The other Neutrogena story many people remember is unrelated to this case. On July 14, 2021, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. recalled “all lots of five NEUTROGENA® and AVEENO® aerosol sunscreen product lines” after internal testing found low levels of benzene, according to the company announcement posted by the FDA. This settlement does not cover sunscreen purchases, and filing a Skin360 claim does nothing for them. For the recalled products and lot numbers, the FDA recall notice and the company’s own site are the places to look.

The defendant appears under its new name: the notice identifies Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. as “now known as Kenvue Brands LLC.” The case stays in New Jersey because that is where it was filed. Only Illinois users are covered because the claims are brought under Illinois law. This is the same statute that produced our earlier coverage of the Palm Beach Tan fingerprint payments.