Dental support organization, Aspen Dental Management, in Chicago, IL serves approximately 1,100 Aspen Dental offices throughout the U.S. It is facing a lawsuit for using tracking tools that sent web user information to Google and Meta (Facebook) without the knowledge or consent of users from 2022 to 2025.
Multiple lawsuits had been filed because of the impermissible disclosure of web user information. A consolidated lawsuit, Donnelly, et al. v. Aspen Dental Management, Inc., was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Allegations stated in the lawsuit include negligence and violations of the Florida Security of Communications Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, California Invasion of Privacy Act, the Pennsylvania Wiretap Act, and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.
Aspen Dental Management claims it did nothing wrong and rejects all of the claims and arguments in the lawsuit. Nevertheless, the HIPAA-covered entity decided to negotiate the lawsuit to avoid a prolonged and expensive lawsuit, with an uncertain end result. The class lawyer and the class representatives consider the settlement as the most beneficial to the class members.
Based on the conditions of the settlement, Aspen Dental Management will create an $18.5 million settlement fund to pay attorneys’ fees, costs, settlement management fees, class representative awards, and class members’ claims. The settlement has two subclasses:
- Group 1 includes roughly 621,370 people who scheduled an appointment through the website from February 20, 2022 to June 1, 2023
- Group 2 includes about 1,625,000 people who scheduled an appointment through the website from June 2, 2023 to January 1, 2025.
Group 1 will have a settlement fund of $2,796,169.50, while Group 2 will have a fund of $15,673,220. Group 1 Class members will get a pro rata cash payment after deducting attorneys’ fees, costs, service awards, and settlement management costs from the settlement fund. Group 2 Class members will get a $15 cash payment, adjusted pro rata according to the number of filed claims.
The last day to file for exclusion from the settlement and/or submit a claim is September 15, 2025. The court has given preliminary approval of the settlement. The schedule of the final fairness hearing is October 20, 2025.
Image credit: janews094, AdobeStock / logo©AspenDental
