Thinkware Settles “Super Night Vision” Dashcam Case for $850,000 — Buyers of Five Models From 2019 to 2024 Can Claim Until December 14, 2026, One Camera Without a Receipt

If you bought one of five Thinkware dashcam models in the United States between January 25, 2019 and August 31, 2024, you can file a claim in an $850,000 class action settlement. The deadline is December 14, 2026. Nobody is paid yet: the settlement still needs final approval at a hearing on January 12, 2027, and the official FAQ is blunt that “No money or benefits are available now” and that “There is no guarantee that money or benefits will ever be distributed.”

The case, Jessica Ratzak v. Thinkware Systems USA, Inc., was filed on January 25, 2023 in the Superior Court of California for Placer County under California’s false advertising, unfair competition and Consumer Legal Remedies laws. According to the official site, the lawsuit alleges that Thinkware “violated the law by misrepresenting and falsely advertising that its Thinkware X700, F200PRO, DC-M2-FG-IR, DC-M2-FG, and F70PRO dashcams (‘Class Products’) featured a ‘Super Night Vision’ function, but failing to disclose that the function was only available in parking mode.” The named plaintiff says in the complaint that after installing an F200 Pro, “the dropdown menu only allowed Plaintiff to use night vision in parking mode,” and that a Thinkware support agent told her the limitation was described on Best Buy’s and Thinkware’s websites. These are allegations. Thinkware “strongly denies any wrongdoing and does not believe it has any liability,” the FAQ says, and settled to avoid further litigation; no court ruled on the merits.

The parties mediated on June 19, 2024 before retired Judge Daniel Buckley and reached a settlement in principle on August 8, 2024. The motion for preliminary approval was filed with papers dated February 20, 2026, and the court granted it, unopposed, on August 12, 2026.

Only five models are covered: the X700, F200PRO, DC-M2-FG-IR, DC-M2-FG and F70PRO. Other Thinkware models are not in the class definition. The court-certified settlement class is “all persons within the United States who purchased” one of those cameras between January 25, 2019 and August 31, 2024; the official site phrases it as buying a class product “in the United States.” The definition does not limit where you bought it — the settlement called for subpoenas to “brick-and-mortar and online retailers who sold Products during the Class Periods” to find buyers. Excluded are members of the court, class counsel, and Thinkware and its employees and agents.

The settlement agreement says it was reached “with the understanding that approximately 62,029 Products were sold during the Class Period.” If confirmatory discovery shows more than 65,130 cameras — 3,101 above that figure — Thinkware adds $6.70 to the fund for each additional camera.

The $850,000 is not all for buyers. Before anything is divided, the fund pays attorneys’ fees of up to one-third — class counsel will ask for no more than $283,333.33 — litigation costs of up to $20,000, a service award of up to $10,000 for the named plaintiff, and notice and administration costs the parties “anticipate” will not exceed $100,000. The agreement itself puts the remaining “Total Distributable Settlement Fund” at $436,666.67. The fund is non-reversionary, so unclaimed money does not go back to Thinkware; the official site says it goes to The Public Justice Foundation.

What each buyer receives depends on how many people claim and which models they claim. The agreement says claimants “will receive a weighted pro rata distribution of the Total Distributable Settlement Fund, depending on the number of claims made and the total number and distribution of Class Products claimed.” The FAQ refers readers to the agreement for how the weights are set, but the published 24-page agreement does not list a value for each model. There is no official per-camera estimate.

Our arithmetic gives the range. If every one of the roughly 62,029 cameras were claimed, $436,666.67 would come to about $7.04 per camera. Fewer claims mean a larger share: if one in ten cameras were claimed — about 6,200 — the share would be about $70. Actual amounts will differ by model and by the fees the court approves. Payment comes by paper check or digital payment (the claim form requires an email address for the digital option), and uncashed checks expire after 180 days.

You can file online through the “Submit a Claim” button on TWCameraSettlement.com, or print the claim form and mail it to Thinkware Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 1349, Baton Rouge, LA 70821. Online claims must be submitted, and mailed claims postmarked, by December 14, 2026.

The form asks for your name, mailing address, email, phone, a Settlement Claim ID if you received one in a notice, your payment choice, and for each camera the model, quantity, approximate purchase date, purchase location and serial number. If you did not get a Claim ID, the form asks you to “provide proof of purchase, purchase location, date, and serial number associated with your Thinkware DashCam.” The agreement is more lenient for a single camera: for buyers who were not notified directly, proof of purchase, location, date and serial number “will be optional,” but there is “a cap of 1 Class Product per Class Member” without proof of purchase, and those claims are “subject to fraud auditing.” To claim more than one camera you must include proof of purchase.

If you do nothing, you stay in the class, give up the right to sue Thinkware over the advertising, and receive no money. The release does not cover personal injury or product liability claims. Other settlements that pay without a receipt are collected on our no-proof-of-purchase list.

To keep your right to sue Thinkware yourself, submit the opt-out form online or by mail, “submitted electronically or postmarked no later than Monday, November 30, 2026.” If you opt out you receive nothing and cannot object.

To object, you must stay in the class and send a written objection to the claims administrator by November 30, 2026. It must include the case name and number, your name, address and phone number, proof of purchase with locations and time frames, all grounds for the objection, whether you plan to attend the hearing, and a declaration listing any other class action objections you or your lawyer filed in the previous five years. To speak at the hearing, you or your lawyer must also file a notice of intention to appear with the court no later than 30 days before it.

The final approval hearing is set for January 12, 2027 at 8:30 a.m. Pacific in Department 32 of the Placer County Superior Court at the Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse, 10820 Justice Center Drive, Roseville, CA 95678, before Judge Trisha J. Hirashima; the case had been assigned to Judge Garen Horst, and the preliminary approval order moved the final hearing to Department 32. The date can change — the FAQ tells class members to check the settlement website. Class counsel is the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman, P.C. in Calabasas, California, (323) 306-4234.

Direct notice is part of the plan. The agreement had class counsel subpoena retailers for buyers’ contact details, send notice by email where an address was available, and send “a postcard” where only a mailing address was known. A genuine notice may carry a Settlement Claim ID, which saves you from having to prove your purchase.

Check any message against the official channels. The court-approved notice and claim form both name www.TWCameraSettlement.com, and that site says it “is the only authorized website for this litigation.” The settlement agreement had proposed a different address, DashCamSettlement.com; the site that went live and that the notice names is TWCameraSettlement.com. The administrator is EisnerAmper, appointed by the court as Eisner Advisory Group, LLC: toll-free 1-888-614-5272, info@TWCameraSettlement.com, P.O. Box 1349, Baton Rouge, LA 70821. The claim form asks for contact details, camera details and a payment choice; it does not ask for a Social Security number or a bank account number. Do not contact the court or Thinkware about the settlement; the FAQ says they cannot advise you.

After the January 12, 2027 hearing, money moves only once the settlement reaches its “Effective Date” — final judgment plus the time for any appeal. Thinkware then has 30 days to pay the $850,000 to the administrator, and payments to claimants follow. No payment date has been announced. Until then, the useful dates are fixed: opt out or object by November 30, 2026, claim by December 14, 2026. More settlements with open deadlines are on our open class action settlements page.