Toyota Airbag Control Unit Settlement: $78.5M, Open to 2028

At a glance

Status

Open

Defendant

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.

Settlement fund

$78,500,000

Claim deadline

December 11, 2028

No-proof cash option

Yes — up to $250 cash residual distribution payment; plus non-monetary benefits (extended new-parts warranty, loaner vehicle program, inspection program) -- confirmed present on official site; exact payout-tier breakdown lives in the claims documents section and was not re-extracted this pass, or up to repair reimbursement program (documented) -- confirmed to exist per official site; exact dollar cap not independently re-confirmed from a source opened this pass

Estimated payout

up to $250 cash residual distribution payment; plus non-monetary benefits (extended new-parts warranty, loaner vehicle program, inspection program) -- confirmed present on official site; exact payout-tier breakdown lives in the claims documents section and was not re-extracted this pass, or up to repair reimbursement program (documented) -- confirmed to exist per official site; exact dollar cap not independently re-confirmed from a source opened this pass

Administrator

Kroll Settlement Administration, LLC

Official site

www.airbagcontrolunitsettlement.com

Court

U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Judge Kronstadt)

Case number

2:19-ml-02905

Last verified September 9, 2026

Key dates

Milestone	Date	What it means
Claim deadline	December 11, 2028	Last day to file for a payment
Opt-out (exclusion) deadline	October 20, 2023(passed)	Last day to leave the settlement and keep the right to sue
Objection deadline	None listed	Last day to object to the terms
Final approval hearing	November 16, 2023(passed)	When the judge decides whether to approve the settlement
Expected payout	Not yet scheduled	Payments are not sent until after final approval and any appeals

Where to file

Toyota Airbag Control Unit (ZF-TRW ACU) Settlement is administered by Kroll Settlement Administration, LLC. The only place to file is the official settlement website:

File at the official site

www.airbagcontrolunitsettlement.com

Filing is free. No legitimate settlement charges a fee to file a claim.

You cannot file on RecordingLaw.com. We are an independent publisher, not the settlement administrator, and we are not affiliated with any court, agency, or defendant.

If you own or leased a Toyota vehicle from the 2011 through 2019 model years, you may have gotten notice of a class settlement over the airbag control unit installed in your car. As of July 2026, that settlement, resolving claims that a ZF-TRW-made airbag control unit could fail to deploy the airbags in a crash, is open, and the deadline to file a claim runs all the way to December 11, 2028. Here is what the case was actually about, where things stand today after a long appeal, and how the claims process works.

What the lawsuit is about

The case is In re ZF-TRW Airbag Control Units Products Liability Litigation, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California under case number 2:19-ml-02905, before Judge Kronstadt. Plaintiffs alleged that a ZF-TRW-made airbag control unit, or ACU, contained a design defect that could prevent the airbags from deploying in some crashes. The alleged defect was not unique to Toyota; ZF-TRW-made ACUs were the subject of related litigation against other automakers too, each resolved as its own separate settlement.

This settlement resolves the claims against Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. covering certain 2011-2019 model-year vehicles, including the Corolla, Corolla Matrix, Avalon, Avalon HV, Tacoma, Tundra, and Sequoia. Toyota agreed to resolve the claims for $78.5 million without admitting fault; as is standard in a class settlement, the deal does not include a court finding that the ACUs were, in fact, defective.

Where things stand right now

This settlement has already been through most of its legal life cycle. The Court held the Final Approval Hearing (fairness hearing) on November 16, 2023, and entered its Final Order and Final Judgment on November 28, 2023, meaning the court found the deal fair, reasonable, and adequate for the class and the settlement became final. The deadline to exclude yourself from the class, sometimes called opting out, was October 20, 2023, and that date has long passed. Opting out and objecting are not the same thing: opting out means leaving the class entirely and getting nothing from this fund, while objecting means staying in the class but telling the judge the deal is unfair. Because final approval already happened back in 2023, both windows have closed.

What actually pushed full implementation out for years was an appeal. After final approval, the settlement was appealed, and that appeal was not resolved until it was dismissed on December 11, 2025, roughly seven months before this page was last checked. That is part of why, even though the case has technically been settled since late 2023, Kroll Settlement Administration only recently became able to move the claims process forward at full scale.

As of July 2026, the settlement is actively accepting and processing claims on a rolling basis, and the deadline to file runs all the way to December 11, 2028. That long runway lines up with how the settlement is structured: benefits like the extended warranty and inspection program only make sense if they cover a vehicle over time, and repair reimbursement claims can only be filed after a repair actually happens, so claims come in as ACU-related repairs occur rather than all at once. No specific date has been set for when any particular payment goes out, since distribution is ongoing rather than tied to one scheduled mailing.

Who's actually in the class

You may be eligible if you owned or leased a covered Toyota vehicle from the 2011 through 2019 model years containing a ZF-TRW airbag control unit. Per the official settlement notice, covered models include the Corolla, Corolla Matrix, Avalon, Avalon HV, Tacoma, Tundra, and Sequoia, though the specific model years vary by vehicle. Because those ranges differ model by model, the surest way to check is the free VIN lookup on the official settlement site rather than guessing from the name and year alone.

How much you can realistically expect

There is no single payout number here; it works through a few different tracks, and which one applies depends on what happened with your vehicle. If you paid out of pocket to repair or replace a ZF-TRW ACU, you may be eligible for reimbursement of those reasonable, documented costs. The settlement record does not state a dollar cap on this track; claims are evaluated individually based on the documentation submitted.

Separately, eligible class members may receive a residual cash payment of up to $250, drawn from funds left over after reimbursement claims are paid. That figure is a ceiling, not a guarantee, and because it comes from a residual pool, the actual amount could end up lower depending on how much of the $78.5 million fund is used up by reimbursement claims and court-approved fees first.

The settlement also includes non-monetary benefits: an extended new-parts warranty on the ACU, a loaner vehicle program, and an inspection program. None of these are guaranteed dollar amounts owed to any one person; all of it is subject to pro-rata adjustment depending on how many valid claims are filed and what the court approves for fees and costs.

What proof you need to file

For a repair reimbursement claim, the settlement's own FAQ page says you generally need a receipt or invoice showing you paid to repair or replace a ZF-TRW ACU, or a signed affidavit if you no longer have that documentation. The residual cash payment works differently: it is aimed at eligible class members generally, not tied to submitting repair paperwork, consistent with the settlement record noting a no-proof option exists. Check the official FAQ page for the current, complete list of accepted documentation before you file.

How filing works

Filing happens only through the official claims process, administered by Kroll Settlement Administration, LLC; the link renders separately on this page. The official site also offers a free VIN lookup tool to confirm whether your specific vehicle is covered before you start a claim. As of July 2026, the deadline to submit a claim, online or postmarked, is December 11, 2028, and that is not a typo, just an unusually long window for a class settlement.

If your situation isn't covered here

This case is a product liability settlement over an alleged mechanical defect, not a data breach, so the credit-freeze and identity-monitoring steps that make sense after a personal-information exposure do not apply here. If you have a general question about whether your vehicle has an open safety recall unrelated to this settlement, NHTSA's own VIN-based recall lookup is a good place to start.

For other open, currently verified settlements, see RecordingLaw's data breach and privacy settlement tracker.