SmileDirectClub Lawsuit: The Company Is Gone - Here's Every Money Channel
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SmileDirectClub shut down mid-treatment in December 2023 and was liquidated in Chapter 7. Since then, real money has flowed through three channels - a $31.75M antitrust settlement (paid March 2026), $4.8M in attorney-general refunds, and a nationwide release from refund gag clauses. Every claim window is now closed. Here is what each channel was and what a former customer can still do.
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Reviewed by Leonard Goldberg, Editor · Last updated
The Cases That Mattered
Snow v. Align Technology (the $31.75M settlement): plaintiffs alleged that Align - maker of Invisalign - had an anticompetitive arrangement with SmileDirectClub that suppressed competition in direct-to-consumer clear aligners, making SDC customers overpay. Align denies wrongdoing, and the court never decided whether Align did anything wrong. The money came from Align, not from bankrupt SDC.
State attorneys general: D.C. sued over refund NDAs - SDC made customers seeking refunds sign gag clauses barring reviews and regulator complaints (settled June 2023: $500K + a nationwide NDA release). A New York-led action recovered $4.8M for SmilePay customers who kept getting billed after the December 2023 shutdown.
Bankruptcy: ~$900M in debt, no buyer, roughly 2 million customers left mid-treatment, the 'Lifetime Smile Guarantee' voided.
Case Details
Snow v. Align Technology, Inc., N.D. Cal. No. 3:21-cv-03269-VC (Judge Vince Chhabria); administrator Epiq, SDCAlignerSettlement.com. In re SmileDirectClub, Bankr. S.D. Tex. No. 23-90786 (Chapter 11 September 29, 2023; converted to Chapter 7 January 2024). District of Columbia v. SmileDirectClub (NDA case, settled June 2023).
Status: All Claim Windows Closed
NY AG / Healthcare Finance Direct refunds: request deadline March 31, 2025 (passed); $4.8M reached 28,000+ consumers, and post-shutdown SmilePay charges were wiped or refunded.
D.C. NDA settlement: done - 17,000+ consumers nationwide were released from refund gag clauses automatically in 2023.
Bankruptcy claims: customer refunds were general unsecured claims against ~$900M of debt - recovery essentially zero. The IPO securities case's post-bankruptcy status is unclear.
What a Former Customer Can Still Do in 2026
No settlement accepts new claims. What still works:
• Missing Snow payment: if you filed by October 27, 2025 or were auto-identified and got nothing, contact the administrator via SDCAlignerSettlement.com (Epiq)
• Lingering SmilePay charges: dispute with your bank/card issuer and check Healthcare Finance Direct's SDC FAQ - the NY AG settlement wiped post-shutdown charges
• You signed a refund NDA: it is void - you may review, complain and talk to regulators freely
• Mid-treatment records: SDC's portal is gone; a licensed local dentist or orthodontist can restart treatment and document your status
• New complaints: your state attorney general - the only channel that has produced money since the bankruptcy
What People Actually Received
How cases like this one end
Our copy of the federal courts’ own case database covers 6,659 antitrust casesclosed in U.S. federal district courts between 2015 and 2025, 37.3% of them filed as class actions:
- 19.7% ended in a settlement recorded by the court. Another 14.4% were dismissed voluntarily, which often follows a private settlement — so the real settlement share sits between 19.7% and 34.1%.
- 11.6% were decided on a motion before any trial.
- 1 in 121 reached a trial (0.8%), after a median of 37 months.
- Median time from filing to the end of the case: 12.3 months.
- Almost none record a money award in this data (32 of 6,659), and the recorded figures are capped, so we do not publish an average.
These are base rates for this type of case (federal antitrust cases) — not a prediction about this lawsuit, and not legal advice. Source: Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (civil), analysed by Settlement Insight. Cases heard in state courts are not included.
SmileDirectClub Timeline
- 1
September 2019 — IPO at $23/Share
The $1.3B IPO quickly draws securities suits as the stock slides.
- 2
June 22, 2023 — D.C. NDA Settlement
$500K to the District; 17,000+ consumers nationwide released from refund gag clauses.
- 3
September 29 / December 8, 2023 — Bankruptcy, Then Shutdown
Chapter 11 filing; global shutdown mid-treatment for ~2 million customers; Chapter 7 conversion follows in January 2024.
- 4
December 2024 - March 2025 — NY AG Refunds
$4.8M for SmilePay customers billed after the shutdown; requests through March 31, 2025.
- 5
October 27 / November 21, 2025 — Snow v. Align Closes
Claim deadline passes; Judge Chhabria grants final approval of the $31.75M settlement.
- 6
March–September 2026 — Snow Payments, Then a Second Distribution
Epiq begins distributing payments; by September 10, 2026, 242,862 payments totaling $20,363,978.70 had gone out (about $84 on average). On September 28, 2026 the court approved a second distribution of stale, unclaimed money, due by November 1, 2026, or 35 days after the order, whichever is later.
Watch Out For
A dead company with 2 million ex-customers is a scam magnet:
Fake 'SDC refund' sites
Every legitimate window is closed. The only real settlement site was SDCAlignerSettlement.com (Epiq) - lookalikes collecting data now are fake.
Debt collectors on wiped SmilePay balances
The NY AG settlement erased or refunded post-shutdown charges. Dispute a collector citing them instead of paying blindly.
'Invisalign settlement' mislabeling
The $31.75M was paid by Align (Invisalign's maker) to SDC customers over antitrust claims - it is not an Invisalign product case, and byte/Candid are different companies.
SmileDirectClub - FAQ
Can I still get money from SmileDirectClub?
Not through any open program. The Snow v. Align claim deadline passed October 27, 2025 (payments went out March 2026), and the NY AG refund window closed March 31, 2025. Only follow-ups on already-filed claims remain - including a second distribution of uncashed Snow money, approved by the court on September 28, 2026, for class members who have claimed their initial payment, are awaiting a reissued payment, or hold an initial payment that has not yet gone stale.
What was the $31.75M SmileDirectClub settlement?
Snow v. Align Technology - an antitrust class action claiming Align and SDC suppressed competition in clear aligners. The money for SDC purchasers (Oct 22, 2017 - Aug 18, 2022) came from Align, not from bankrupt SDC: as of September 10, 2026, 242,862 payments totaling $20,363,978.70 had been issued - about $84 on average - and the court approved a second distribution on September 28, 2026.
I never received my Snow v. Align payment - what do I do?
Contact the administrator, Epiq, at info@SDCAlignerSettlement.com or 1-888-788-8304 (toll-free), as listed on SDCAlignerSettlement.com on September 30, 2026. Payments began March 2026; misdirected or uncashed payments go through the administrator, not Align. Under the court's September 28, 2026 order, first-round payments past their stale date are voided and that money is redistributed; class members awaiting a reissued payment are included in the second distribution.
SmilePay is still charging me - is that legal?
The NY-led AG settlement required Healthcare Finance Direct to wipe or refund charges after the December 8, 2023 shutdown. Dispute the charge with your bank and cite that settlement; complain to your state AG if it persists.
I signed an NDA to get my SDC refund - can I talk about it?
Yes. The June 2023 D.C. settlement released 17,000+ consumers nationwide from those gag clauses. You may post reviews and complain to regulators freely.
I was mid-treatment when SDC shut down - what happened to my aligners?
Treatment simply stopped; the 'Lifetime Smile Guarantee' died in bankruptcy. A licensed local dentist or orthodontist can assess where you stand and restart treatment - SDC's telehealth records portal no longer exists.
Is SmileDirectClub coming back?
No. The company was liquidated under Chapter 7 in 2024. Entities using the name or targeting its former customers have no connection to the original company's obligations.
Separate from this case: were you injured in the last 2 years?
Class-action payouts are fixed amounts through an administrator. A personal injury claim is a different case — and often worth far more. Free estimate, no obligation.