O'Reilly Auto Parts Texted Numbers That Belonged to Someone Else — Now $18.8 Million Is on the Table, but Shopping There Can Get Your Claim Denied

Phone numbers get recycled. When a number's previous owner signed up for a retailer's texts and then dropped the line, the marketing consent did not follow the number to its new owner — but the texts often did. Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, marketing texts to a number on the National Do-Not-Call Registry, sent without the current owner's consent, are exactly the conduct class actions are built on. The FCC even maintains a Reassigned Numbers Database that lets businesses scrub for recycled numbers before texting — the settlement site's own domain, oreillyrndsettlement.com, nods to the problem, though the site never spells the acronym out.

That is the conduct alleged in Bryan v. O'Reilly Automotive, Inc., No. 2026CH000016, in the Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, LaSalle County, Illinois. O'Reilly denies wrongdoing; the settlement resolves the claims without a finding of liability. (Not to be confused with O'Reilly's separate FCRA and COVID-era settlements — this one is purely about text messages.)

The official FAQ defines the class as: “All persons throughout the United States (1) whose telephone numbers were registered on the National Do-Not-Call Registry for at least 30 days, and (2) who received more than one text messages from or on behalf of O'Reilly Automotive within any 12-month period (3) after the telephone number was reassigned to them.” Aggregator summaries put the covered period at April 2021 through June 2026, though the official site does not state the date range itself.

Then comes the unusual part, straight from the settlement homepage: “If you made an online or in-store purchase from O'Reilly Automotive in the 18 months preceding the text messages, your claim may be denied.” The notice does not explain the reasoning, but the logic tracks how TCPA cases work: a recent purchase can suggest an existing business relationship — and possibly consent — which is precisely what the reassigned-number theory says was missing. The result is a settlement with an inverted incentive: the further you are from being an O'Reilly customer, the cleaner your claim.

The numbers here are unusually official — they come from the settlement FAQ itself, not aggregator guesses. Payment: “O'Reilly Automotive has agreed to pay Settlement Payments with estimated value of $22.00 per person for Approved Claims.” Ceiling: payments, fees, service awards, and administration costs together may not exceed “the Aggregate Cap of $18,842,577” — and the $22 “may be reduced pro rata” to stay under it if claims run high. Fees: “Class Counsel intends to request an award of up to $6,280,859” — almost exactly one-third of the cap. Class size: not published.

And the timing caveat every settlement carries: benefits flow only if the court grants final approval — in the site's words, “If it does, and after any appeals are resolved, benefits will be distributed to those who submit Approved Claim Forms.” With the final hearing set for November 5, 2026, realistic payment timing is 2027.

Claims are due September 28, 2026 — online by 11:59 p.m. PST, or postmarked by that date. Exclusions and objections are due October 6, 2026. The final approval hearing is November 5, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. CT — held via Zoom. The administrator is Kroll Settlement Administration, reachable at (833) 930-0257. (Yes, that Kroll — the settlement-administration arm of the same company whose “Return to Kroll” breach-notice envelopes people were googling last month.)

Aggregators describe the claim as requiring no proof beyond your claim information; the official FAQ itself only says to “read the Claim Form carefully and provide all the information required.” Practically: if you received O'Reilly promo texts on a number you did not sign up with — especially a number you acquired in recent years — filing takes minutes on the official site, and $22 is the honest expectation, not the $500–$1,500 statutory figures TCPA headlines like to cite.