Apple settled 20 AirTag stalking lawsuits in roughly two months this summer, according to its own brief to the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. That is about half of all the cases brought over the tracker, and the panel hears argument on September 24 in Chicago on whether the rest should be folded into one nationwide proceeding.
The figure comes from Apple’s August 25 opposition brief in MDL No. 3199, In re Apple AirTag Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation. Apple offers it as a reason to leave the cases where they are: “the parties’ working relationships have facilitated the settlement of 20 actions in the last two months.” The terms of the individual settlements are not public.
Where the 20 settlements came from
The oldest cases began in December 2022 as a proposed class action in San Francisco before Judge Vince Chhabria. He denied class certification in March 2026, 30 plaintiffs went ahead with individual complaints, and each case was transferred to the district where the plaintiff says the tracking happened.
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By Apple’s account, that breakup is what unlocked the deals. “While this action was pending as a class case for 3.5 years, no plaintiff settled,” the brief says. Since then:
- 15 of the 30 federal plaintiffs have settled, and the other 15 cases continue.
- Four of the six California residents who sued in state court have settled.
- One more claim settled before any lawsuit was filed.
That makes 20. Nine of the settled cases, the brief adds, sit on the list of cases the other side wants centralized.
What the panel decides on September 24
The push for one proceeding comes from newer plaintiffs. Three people filed fresh federal suits on August 2 and 3, and their lawyers asked the panel on August 4 to send every AirTag case to the District of Arizona. The panel’s hearing schedule lists 26 actions in 19 federal districts, from Florida and Georgia to Texas and Washington State, and puts the AirTag matter down for oral argument, which starts at 9:30 a.m. at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
Apple wants no multidistrict case at all. It says the common discovery is largely done, citing more than 285,000 pages of Apple documents and 39 plaintiff depositions, and that what remains turns on each plaintiff’s own story. “Centralizing now jeopardizes the parties’ recent progress to global resolution and risks slowing down the more advanced Preexisting Cases,” the brief says. One of those older cases already has a trial date of May 11, 2027.
If the panel does centralize, Apple wants the cases in the Middle District of Florida, not Arizona. That court has three AirTag cases, two of them before Judge John Badalamenti in Tampa.
New AirTag complaints keep arriving
On September 17, a woman identified as Jane Doe, J.S.V. 1 sued Apple in federal court in Portland, Oregon. Her 56-page complaint opens: “Apple must be held accountable for its continuing failure to adequately protect members of the public from being stalked with its AirTag.” It brings negligence, strict product liability, Oregon consumer protection and invasion of privacy claims, and seeks damages plus court orders changing how Apple sells the product. It also alleges that Apple received more than 40,000 stalking reports between April 2021 and April 2024, a claim the court has not tested.
Apple’s defense rests on design intent and safety features. The brief says AirTag was built to “help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property,” and points to its tracking alerts on iPhone, iPad and, through work with Google, Android. The plaintiffs argue those protections came too late or fall short.
If your iPhone warns you about a tracker
Apple’s support page on tracker alerts says to tap the alert, tap Continue, then tap Play Sound, or tap Find Nearby to use Precision Finding on a supported iPhone. To stop the item sharing its location, “tap Instructions to Disable and follow the onscreen steps.” Apple’s advice is direct: “If you feel your safety is at risk, contact your local law enforcement, who can work with Apple to request information related to the item.”
iOS 27 also lets you pause location sharing with a single person in Find My. The AirTag cases are one of several consumer fights on Apple’s legal calendar this fall, alongside a £2 billion UK claim over App Tracking Transparency.
