Sony Pictures Entertainment has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing its Crunchyroll anime streaming service of illegally violating users’ privacy — and Crunchyroll users may be eligible to receive a piece of the $16 million settlement fund.
The lawsuit, filed in September 2022, claimed that Sony and Crunchyroll violated the U.S.’s Video Privacy Protection Act by disclosing subscribers’ personally identifiable information to meta’s Facebook and other third parties — without the users’ consent.
Sony denied that the service violated any law. On Sept. 15, 2023, the company entered a settlement in U.S. District Court in Illinois resolving the claims with defendents.
Affected Crunchyroll users are eligible to receive a portion of the settlement fund expected to be about $30 (but the exact amount could be more or less). Those eligible to file a claim are U.S. residents who were a registered user of any Crunchyroll service or viewed videos on a Crunchyroll app or website from Sept. 8, 2020, through Sept. 20, 2023. Consumers must file claims online at the site (at this link) established by the settlement administrator by Dec. 12 or mail in a paper form postmarked by that date.
The final approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for Dec. 19, 2023. If the court approves the settlement, eligible class members will receive their payment after 90 days.
Crunchyroll has said that it counts more than 10 million subscribers. Crunchyroll is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. Sony bought Crunchyroll for $1.18 billion in cash from AT&T in 2021 and last year merged Crunchyroll with anime streaming service Funimation (which Sony had acquired in 2019).
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Crunchyroll launched its first free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel in the U.S. on platforms including LG Channels, the Roku Channel and Vizio WatchFree+, in a bid to win anime fans and turn them into subscribers.
