Three claims close by Oct. 4 — and a $117M pork settlement with no receipts
Three claims expire inside two weeks — an MG217 shampoo refund, plus O'Reilly and Palm Beach Tan text-message settlements — followed by a $117 million pork price-fixing fund that files without receipts and a Kroger prescription claim closing in December.
Six open class-action claims are worth a look this week, and three of them expire inside two weeks — one closes Thursday. The biggest is a national pork price-fixing settlement that asks for no paperwork when you file.
Class-action checks are usually small. Most of what follows lands between about $5 and $50, and one entry caps out at $7 per purchase. Filing makes sense when the official class definition already covers you and the form takes a few minutes. When it doesn't, skip it without guilt.
Short version
| Settlement | Claim deadline | Realistic value | Proof or access gate | Direct filing path |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MG217 coal tar shampoo | September 24, 2026 | Up to $7 per purchase with no receipt, or a $25 voucher | None at filing | File at the settlement site |
| O'Reilly Automotive texts | September 28, 2026 | Up to $22, reduced pro rata | Your phone number; a recent O'Reilly purchase may disqualify you | File with the administrator |
| Palm Beach Tan texts | October 4, 2026 | A share of a $2.5M fund; $1,500 is a ceiling, not a forecast | Your phone number | File with the administrator |
| VSL#3 probiotic | October 20, 2026 | $20 without receipts; up to $800 with them | Self-attestation | File on the settlement site |
| Pork price-fixing | October 29, 2026 | A pro-rata share of $117.065M | Nothing at filing | File on the settlement site |
| Kroger prescriptions | December 21, 2026 | A pro-rata share of $17M, weighted by what you paid | Self-attestation; documents only above $8,000 | File on the settlement site |
Every figure comes from the court-approved settlement terms. Where a payment is pro rata, the administrator divides the fund by the total of valid claims, so your share moves with how many other people file. The sites linked in the last column are the only authorized places to file.
Closing in the next two weeks
MG217 coal tar shampoo — September 24 (3 days)
The lawsuit. Lorisa Pineda v. Lake Consumer Products, Inc., Case No. 5:2024-cv-01074-CH, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 1
Who qualifies. Anyone who bought MG217 coal tar shampoo in the United States between January 1, 2021 and June 25, 2026 — the Psoriasis Extra Strength, Psoriasis Medicated Conditioning 3% Coal Tar, and Dandruff Therapeutic varieties. The plaintiff says Lake failed to follow current Good Manufacturing Practices on benzene levels; Lake denies it and says the products are safe and compliant. 2
What it is worth. $1,200,000 in all — $700,000 cash and $500,000 in vouchers. Cash pays up to $7.00 for each purchase you claim without a receipt, adjusted up or down pro rata with claim volume; with a receipt you can claim the price you paid. 2 Or take a single $25 voucher toward the MG217 line, capped at $50 in vouchers per person, with no expiry, transferable, and stackable on other discounts. 2
Proof and access. None. No postcard, Notice ID or PIN — you attest under penalty of perjury to how many products you bought. 1
Deadline. September 24, 2026, by 11:59 p.m. Eastern online or postmarked the same day by mail. Fairness hearing October 15, 2026. 2
Five-minute value check. Check the label on any dandruff or psoriasis shampoo you have bought since 2021. The form is one page: name, address, a count of bottles, signature. About $7 a bottle, or $25 in product if you still use the line.
O'Reilly Automotive texts — September 28 (7 days)
The lawsuit. Bryan v. O'Reilly Automotive, Inc., Case No. 2026CH000016, Circuit Court of the Thirteenth Judicial District, LaSalle County, Illinois. 3
Who qualifies. People who received two or more text messages from O'Reilly after their phone number was assigned to them and while it was on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. The lawsuit says those texts broke the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; O'Reilly denies wrongdoing. 3
What it is worth. Up to $22.00 per person, cut pro rata if claims run high, out of an $18.8 million fund. 34
Proof and access. Your phone number, plus one caveat worth reading twice: if you bought from O'Reilly online or in store in the 18 months before the text messages, your claim may be denied. 3 This case is built around non-customers who were texted anyway.
Deadline. September 28, 2026. Opt-outs and objections close October 6, 2026. 3
Five-minute value check. Search your messages app for "O'Reilly". Two or more texts, and no O'Reilly purchase in the 18 months before them, makes a four-field form worth $22. 5
Palm Beach Tan texts — October 4 (13 days)
The lawsuit. Hudson v. Palm Beach Tan Inc. & Archer Malmo Inc., Case No. 1:23-cv-00486-WO-JEP, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. 6
Who qualifies. Anyone who received a Palm Beach Tan text message after texting an inbound stop request, between June 19, 2019 and July 5, 2026. 6
What it is worth. Read this number carefully. The fund is $2,500,000, shared among claimants and allocated by how many post-stop messages each received; published coverage repeats a ceiling of up to $1,500 for a claimant with one post-stop message. 6 That is an allocation ceiling, not a forecast. Divide $2.5 million by the number of people who file and you have the order of magnitude — tens of dollars at most.
Proof and access. The phone number that received the messages. 6
Deadline. October 4, 2026, for the claim and for any exclusion or objection. Final approval hearing December 29, 2026. 6
Five-minute value check. Worth doing only if you remember texting STOP to a tanning salon and still getting texts — a minute in your message history confirms it. If you never opted out of anything, this one isn't yours. 7
Open and newly filed
Pork price-fixing — a share of $117.065 million by October 29
The lawsuit. In re: Pork Antitrust Litigation (Consumer Indirect Purchaser Plaintiffs), Case No. 18-1776, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. 8 The lawsuit alleged that pork processors inflated and stabilized the price and supply of pork through a data-sharing service, production restraints and exports, so consumers paid more than they should have. The companies deny wrongdoing. 9
Who qualifies. People who bought at a grocery store or supermarket — not from a processor — raw pork bacon, or raw pork (fresh or frozen) from bellies, loins, shoulder, ribs or pork chops, for personal consumption, between June 28, 2014 and June 30, 2018, in one of 24 jurisdictions: Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. 8 Organic and no-antibiotics-ever pork is excluded, as is any non-bacon product that is marinated, seasoned, flavored or breaded. Bacon is always in. 8
What it is worth. Six defendants settled: Clemens paid $13.5 million, Hormel $4.465 million, Seaboard $10 million, Triumph $4.1 million, Tyson $85 million, and Agri Stats paid nothing but agreed to change its practices — $117.065 million in cash, on top of $95 million from earlier JBS and Smithfield settlements whose claim windows have closed. 910 Payment is pro rata and proportional to how much qualifying pork you bought. As a rough scale check rather than a promise: $117 million split evenly across even 10 million filing households is under $12 each, and the real split is weighted, not even.
Proof and access. The filing instructions say you need no documentation when you file, and that the administrator may later ask for information or documentation to support your claim. 11 So there is nothing to upload, but don't shred your grocery records.
Deadline. October 29, 2026, online or postmarked. Opt-outs and objections close the same day, and the final approval hearing is December 11, 2026. 9
Five-minute value check. One question decides it: did you buy bacon, pork chops, ribs, loin, shoulder or belly at a supermarket in one of those 24 states between mid-2014 and mid-2018? If yes, file — no receipts, no Notice ID, six weeks to go. If you live in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Georgia, check the list again; those states are not in the class. 8
VSL#3 probiotic — $20 without receipts, up to $800 with them, by October 20
The lawsuit. Starr v. VSL Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Case No. 8:19-cv-02173-LKG, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. 12 The plaintiffs say the company falsely claimed that the VSL#3 formulation it sold during the class period had been proven in clinical tests to be effective for certain medical conditions, and that buyers overpaid. The defendants deny it. 13
Who qualifies. Anyone who purchased VSL#3 in the United States between June 1, 2016 and June 19, 2019, excluding resellers and the defendants' own officers and directors. 13
What it is worth. A $20 million fund pays $20 per unit, where a unit is one bottle or box and every bottle in a multipack counts separately, subject to pro-rata adjustment. 13 The tiers are what matter. Without proof of purchase you are limited to one unit per household — a flat $20. With proof you can claim either three units or however many you can document, whichever is greater, up to 40 units, or $800. 13 If you received a notice with credentials, the sales records class counsel already collected count as proof of purchase, so entering them can lift you off the $20 floor. 13
Proof and access. Self-attestation gets you $20; receipts get you more. Nobody needs a receipt to file.
Deadline. October 20, 2026, for claims, exclusions and objections. Final approval hearing January 6, 2027, with payment proposed within 60 days of the effective date. 13
Five-minute value check. VSL#3 was an expensive, widely stocked probiotic. If you bought it in that three-year window, filing takes a few minutes for a guaranteed $20 floor — and searching your email for the order confirmation is the difference between $20 and up to $800. 14
Kroger prescription pricing — a share of $17 million by December 21
The lawsuit. Kirkbride et al. v. The Kroger Co., Case No. 2:21-cv-00022, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, concerns Kroger's "usual and customary" pricing practices for prescription drugs. 1516
Who qualifies. All individuals in the United States who, at any point from December 9, 2018 through August 23, 2026, paid in whole or in part for one or more prescription drugs from Kroger using their insurance. 16 Paying cash at the counter does not put you in this class; using your insurance card does.
What it is worth. Kroger is paying $17,000,000 into the fund, spread pro rata and weighted by what each claimant paid. 16 The figure is not knowable in advance: the same $17 million is divided by everyone who files, across a class that is national and nearly eight years long. A household filling prescriptions every month has a real claim; someone who filled one prescription once should expect a token amount. Treat any estimate accordingly.
Proof and access. The form asks you to attest to your estimated or actual payments. Documentation is required only for claims of $8,000 or more, and claimants under that threshold whom the administrator cannot find on Kroger's own records may also be asked to supply support. 16 If you have pharmacy receipts or an insurance statement, keep them; if you don't, file anyway.
Deadline. December 21, 2026. Exclusions close October 22, 2026, the fairness hearing is January 11, 2027, and the first distribution is proposed within 120 days of the effective date. 16
Five-minute value check. This is the one to calendar rather than do today. Nothing about it is urgent until December, and payment is proportional to what you paid, so the useful five minutes now go to finding your total — a Kroger pharmacy printout or your insurer's claim history beats a guess. 17
Three quick wins
- File MG217 before Thursday. It is the only entry here that closes this week, it needs no postcard or login, and it pays per bottle. The no-receipt path is still $7 a bottle, and a $25 voucher doesn't expire — but only if the form is in by September 24.
- File the pork claim now, and don't hunt for old receipts. The filing stage asks for no documentation and no Notice ID, so the whole job is filling in purchase information from memory. Set aside the instinct to prove the purchases; that isn't what this step asks for.
- Put Kroger on a December calendar entry, and pull your pharmacy total first. Payment is weighted by what you paid, so finding your number is worth more than filing early. Exclusions close October 22, which is the date that matters if you would rather keep your own claim against Kroger.
Not on this week's list
The DeLong v. Sportsman's Guide, LLC settlement, Case No. CV-2025-000911 in the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, offers up to $145 with a claim deadline of October 5, 2026. 18 It is missing from this week's recommendations for one reason: the class covers only people who ordered or reserved a firearm from Sportsman's Guide's website while residing in Pennsylvania. 18 If that is you, the deadline is two weeks away.
References
- 1Pineda v. Lake Consumer Products settlement website
mg217shampoosettlement.com
- 2Pineda v. Lake Consumer Products FAQ
mg217shampoosettlement.com
- 3Bryan v. O'Reilly Automotive settlement website
oreillyrndsettlement.com
- 4Top Class Actions report on the O'Reilly settlement
topclassactions.com
- 5Bryan v. O'Reilly Automotive settlement documents
oreillyrndsettlement.com
- 6Top Class Actions report on the Palm Beach Tan settlement
topclassactions.com
- 7Palm Beach Tan official claim form
veritaconnect.com
- 8Consumer Indirect Purchaser Pork Litigation FAQ
overchargedforpork.com
- 9Consumer Indirect Purchaser Pork Litigation official website
overchargedforpork.com
- 10Top Class Actions report on the pork settlement
topclassactions.com
- 11Consumer Indirect Purchaser Pork Litigation claim instructions
overchargedforpork.com
- 12Starr v. VSL Pharmaceuticals settlement website
vsl3lawsuit.com
- 13Starr v. VSL Pharmaceuticals settlement notice
angeion-public.s3.amazonaws.com
- 14VSL#3 official online claim form
vsl3lawsuit.com
- 15Kirkbride v. Kroger settlement website
krogersavingsclubsettlement.com
- 16Kirkbride v. Kroger long-form notice
angeion-public.s3.amazonaws.com
- 17Kroger official online claim form
krogersavingsclubsettlement.com
- 18DeLong v. Sportsman's Guide settlement website
pasportsmansguideufasettlement.com
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