Costa Del Mar $21.75M Sunglasses Repair Fee Settlement, Who Qualifies, How to Claim and Key Deadlines

Costa Del Mar, Inc. has agreed to pay $21,750,000 to settle a Florida class action over its promise to repair damaged sunglasses for a “nominal fee.” Florida residents who bought Costa sunglasses years ago, or who paid Costa a repair fee, may be able to collect.

How you get paid depends on which group you are in. If Costa charged you more than $11.95 for a repair, you are paid automatically and do not need to file anything. If you only bought a pair of qualifying Costa sunglasses, you must file a claim by January 11, 2027.

Costa denies wrongdoing, and the court has not ruled on who is right. The settlement still needs final approval, and no payments go out until the court approves it and the judgment becomes final.

Costa Del Mar Settlement Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Case	Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc.
Case number	16-2017-CA-004794
Court	Circuit Court, Fourth Judicial Circuit, Duval County, Florida (Judge Bruce R. Anderson)
Settlement fund	$21,750,000
Who is covered	Florida citizens who bought non-prescription, non-promotional Costa sunglasses for personal use, or were charged a repair fee for them
Purchase Class	Bought sunglasses between July 28, 2013 and January 31, 2018
Repair Class	Bought sunglasses on or before January 31, 2018 and were charged a replacement fee between July 28, 2012 and January 26, 2025
Claim form needed?	Purchase Class: yes. Repair Class: no.
Claim deadline	January 11, 2027 (submitted online or postmarked)
Opt-out and objection deadline	January 19, 2027
Final approval hearing	March 23, 2027 at 9:00 a.m. ET, Fourth Judicial Circuit Courthouse, 501 W Adams St, Jacksonville
Settlement website	CostaSunglassLitigation.com
Administrator	Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions, 1-833-558-0945

What the Haney Lawsuit Alleges Costa Del Mar Did Wrong

Costa sells sunglasses with a promise, printed on its packaging, to replace scratched lenses, frames and other parts for a “nominal fee” when sunglasses are damaged by accident, normal wear and tear, or misuse. The lawsuit alleges the fees Costa actually charged were more than nominal as most people understand the word. It also alleges Costa did not disclose repair charges at the point of purchase, on its website, or over the phone before customers mailed in their sunglasses at their own expense.

Plaintiff Brendan Haney sued under two laws:

• Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), Fla. Stat. §§ 501.201 et seq. Haney argues the “nominal fee” promise was unfair and deceptive because a reasonable consumer would expect a nominal fee to be far less than what Costa charged. For this claim he seeks damages measured as the difference in value between Costa sunglasses with a lifetime of repairs for a nominal fee and Costa sunglasses without that promise.
• Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (MMWA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 2301 et seq. Haney argues the promise is a written warranty and that Costa breached it by charging more than a nominal fee. For this claim he seeks the difference between what each class member paid and what a jury would find to be a nominal fee, which he contends is at most $11.95. That figure is where the settlement’s repair cutoff comes from.

Costa Del Mar’s defenses

Costa denies the claims, denies any wrongdoing and has raised several defenses. It says the packaging language was marketing, not a warranty. It says its fees were in fact nominal. It says buyers who never saw the language cannot show harm, and that buyers did not rely on it when they bought. It also says any warranty covered only manufacturing defects, and that any promise it made was fully satisfied. The notice states that if these defenses succeeded, class members could get nothing from the lawsuit. The court has not ruled on the merits or found that Costa broke any law.

Costa Del Mar Lawsuit Timeline: From 2017 Filing to the 2026 Settlement

• 2017: Brendan Haney files the class action in Duval County.
• April 12, 2019: The court certifies a Purchase Class and a Repair Class, according to the settlement agreement’s recitals.
• October 24, 2023, February 29, 2024 and October 1, 2025: The parties attend three mediation sessions with mediator Terry White.
• January 2026: A trial begins and is declared a mistrial.
• April 2, 2026: The parties reach agreement on the material terms of the settlement.

The settlement agreement says Haney is related to two other lawsuits against Costa: Reed v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Case No. 6:19-cv-01751, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and Smith v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Case No. 16-2025-CA-004472, in the same Duval County court. The agreement states the parties negotiated a global resolution of all three actions.

Related article: Rhode Island Bioenergy Facility $1M Class Action Settlement, Who Qualifies, How to Claim and Key Deadlines

Who Qualifies for the Costa Del Mar Settlement

You must be a citizen of the State of Florida. The classes are limited to natural persons, and they exclude Costa, entities Costa controls, their legal representatives, employees, officers, directors, assigns and successors, and the judge and judge’s staff.

Purchase Class. You bought non-prescription, non-promotional Costa sunglasses for personal use between July 28, 2013 and January 31, 2018.

Repair Class. You bought non-prescription, non-promotional Costa sunglasses for personal use on or before January 31, 2018, and Costa charged you a fee between July 28, 2012 and January 26, 2025 to replace damaged components.

If you fit both classes, you take part only as a Repair Class member. Prescription sunglasses and promotional sunglasses are not covered, and neither are purchases made for business use or by people who were not Florida citizens.

How the $21,750,000 Costa Del Mar Settlement Fund Is Divided

The fund pays class members, the settlement administrator and class counsel. Under the settlement agreement:

• Purchase Class: $6,375,000 is set aside. Each qualifying purchase you claim gets one equal (pro rata) share of that amount.
• Repair Class: The Repair Class is paid from the rest of the fund after the $6,375,000 Purchase Class allocation, administration costs and approved attorneys’ fees and expenses are deducted. Each qualifying repair gets one equal share. A repair qualifies only if the fee exceeded $11.95, and Costa’s own repair data determines how many qualifying repairs each person has. Repairs are counted by unique repair identification number.
• Leftover money: Any residue after distribution goes to Captains for Clean Water, subject to court approval.

Attorneys’ fees in the Costa Del Mar settlement

Class counsel will ask the court for $7,303,605 in attorneys’ fees and expenses. By our arithmetic, that is about 33.6% of the $21,750,000 fund. If the court approves the full request, $14,446,395 would remain, and after the $6,375,000 Purchase Class allocation, $8,071,395 would be left for the Repair Class before administration costs. These are our calculations from the notice’s figures, not amounts announced by the court or administrator. The court may award less. Costa agreed not to oppose a fee request up to class counsel’s lodestar, and the court considers the fee request separately from whether the settlement itself is fair.

How much will each person get?

Nobody can say yet. A Purchase Class share depends on how many valid purchase claims come in. A Repair Class share depends on how many qualifying repairs are in Costa’s data and on what is left after deductions. Neither number is public, so we are not estimating a dollar amount.

How to Get Paid in the Costa Del Mar Settlement

Repair Class members: no claim needed

You are paid automatically from Costa’s records. Make sure the administrator has your current mailing and email address, and consider choosing a payment method on the settlement website. If your contact information changes, you must tell the administrator in writing at the address below.

Purchase Class members: file a claim by January 11, 2027

1. Go to CostaSunglassLitigation.com and start your claim online, or download the claim form and mail it to: Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Settlement Administrator, PO Box 4153, Portland, OR 97208-4153. Mailed forms must be postmarked by January 11, 2027.
2. List each qualifying pair of Costa sunglasses you bought in Florida between July 28, 2013 and January 31, 2018.
3. You can claim up to five purchases without supporting documents. The administrator may require proof if you claim more than five.
4. Submit before the deadline. A late claim is denied without further notice. If you mail a claim that is incomplete or invalid, the administrator will notify you of the problem and you will have 21 days from that notice to fix it. The online portal accepts only timely, complete claims.

The post office does not always postmark mail the day you drop it off. The notice recommends mailing at least a week before the deadline, getting a manual postmark in person at a post office, or sending the claim by Certified Mail.

Payment method

Through the settlement website you can choose a paper check, Venmo, PayPal or Zelle. If you do not choose, you get a paper check.

Your Options in the Costa Del Mar Settlement

Option	What happens	Deadline
File a claim (Purchase Class)	The only way a Purchase Class member gets paid	January 11, 2027
Do nothing (Repair Class)	You are paid automatically, and you give up your right to sue Costa over the released claims	None
Do nothing (Purchase Class)	No payment, and you still give up your right to sue	None
Opt out	No payment. You keep your right to sue Costa on your own.	Postmarked by January 19, 2027
Object	You stay in the settlement and tell the court why you disagree	Filed with the court and mailed by January 19, 2027

How to opt out of the Costa Del Mar settlement

Mail a written request to the administrator at Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Settlement Administrator, PO Box 4153, Portland, OR 97208-4153, postmarked by January 19, 2027. It must include the case name, your name and address, your personal physical signature, and a statement that you want to be excluded, such as: “I hereby request to be excluded from the Settlement Classes in Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Case No. 16-2017-CA-004794.”

You cannot opt out by phone or email. Group or “mass” opt-out requests are not allowed unless every person signs. The settlement agreement also lets you revoke a timely exclusion request by mail, postmarked on or before the opt-out deadline. If you opt out, you get no payment, whether you are in the Purchase Class or the Repair Class, and you cannot object.

How to object to the Costa Del Mar settlement

You must stay in the settlement to object. File a written objection with the Clerk, Fourth Judicial Circuit, 501 W Adams St, Jacksonville, FL 32202, and mail copies to class counsel and Costa’s counsel, postmarked by January 19, 2027. It must include:

1. The case name and number: Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Case No. 16-2017-CA-004794.
2. Your name, address and telephone number.
3. The name, address and telephone number of your lawyer, if you have one.
4. The basis for your objection.
5. A statement of whether you plan to appear at the final approval hearing, with or without a lawyer.

To speak at the hearing, you or your lawyer must also file and serve a Notice of Intention to Appear by January 19, 2027, with copies of any papers or evidence you will present. You do not have to attend for the court to consider a timely written objection. An objection not made in the required manner is waived.

What You Give Up in the Costa Del Mar Settlement

If you stay in the settlement, you release Costa and related parties, including EssilorLuxottica and its subsidiaries and affiliates, from claims connected to the allegations in the complaint. That covers Costa’s warranty or repair program, the repair language on its packaging, its communications about repairs, and the fees it quoted or charged. It includes claims under FDUTPA and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and any other claims that could have been brought on the same allegations.

The release covers unknown claims too. You are bound even if you never received the notice. The settlement does not require Costa to change its repair program, and the agreement says the final order will not include any injunctive relief.

The Laws Behind the Costa Del Mar Class Action

This section explains the legal framework. It does not add claims beyond those in the notice.

Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. FDUTPA, Fla. Stat. §§ 501.201 et seq., bars unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce (Fla. Stat. § 501.204). Section 501.211 sets out the remedies available to consumers, and section 501.2105 addresses attorneys’ fees. Haney’s FDUTPA theory is that a reasonable consumer would read “nominal fee” as far smaller than what Costa charged.

Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The MMWA, 15 U.S.C. §§ 2301 et seq., is the federal law on consumer product warranties. It defines a “written warranty” in 15 U.S.C. § 2301(6) and lets consumers sue for breach in 15 U.S.C. § 2310(d). One of the unresolved issues in this case is whether Costa’s packaging language is a “warranty” under the Act at all. Costa says it is marketing language.

Florida class action procedure. Class actions in Florida circuit courts are governed by Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.220. The settlement agreement requires the court’s preliminary approval order to find that the proposed settlement meets Rule 1.220, and the court must hold a final approval hearing to decide whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate.

Settlement negotiations. The agreement says its negotiation and terms stay subject to Fla. Stat. § 90.408 and similar laws, which limit the use of compromise offers as evidence, and that nothing in it is an admission of liability.

Taxes. The settlement agreement says Costa makes no representations about the tax treatment of payments. A Form 1099 may be issued to class members who do not opt out, and the notice tells class members to seek their own tax advice.

Other Costa settlements. The Smith case, listed above as related to Haney, has its own settlement page with its own rules. Do not use one settlement’s eligibility rules to decide the other. Read our article Costa Del Mar Warranty Fee Settlement, Check If You Qualify — Smith v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., No. 16-2025-CA-004472 for that separate settlement. For the $21.75 million Haney settlement, rely only on CostaSunglassLitigation.com.

When Will Costa Del Mar Settlement Payments Be Sent?

Not before the court grants final approval and the judgment becomes final. The final approval hearing is set for March 23, 2027 at 9:00 a.m. ET before Judge Bruce R. Anderson. The date and time can change without further notice, and the court may hold the hearing by video or phone, so check CostaSunglassLitigation.com before the date.

Under the settlement agreement, payments go out 37 days after the Effective Date, which is when all conditions are met and the judgment is final. An appeal would push that back. Costa funds the remainder of the settlement within 30 days of the Effective Date.

Other rules in the agreement:

• Checks and electronic payments not cashed or claimed within 60 days of the distribution date are void, and those class members lose their share.
• If at least $150,000 remains after the first distribution, and uncashed amounts are enough to pay for a second round and give each eligible member at least $1.00, a second distribution goes to members who cashed their first payment.
• Costa can terminate the settlement if 5% or more of class members opt out.
• If the court does not give final approval, the agreement becomes void and the case goes back to where it stood before the settlement.

Key Dates in the Costa Del Mar Settlement

Date	Event
2017	Brendan Haney files the lawsuit
April 12, 2019	Court certifies the Purchase Class and Repair Class
January 2026	Trial begins and ends in a mistrial
April 2, 2026	Parties agree on settlement terms
January 11, 2027	Purchase Class claim deadline
January 19, 2027	Opt-out and objection deadline
March 23, 2027, 9:00 a.m. ET	Final approval hearing

Costa Del Mar Settlement Contact Information

• Settlement website: CostaSunglassLitigation.com
• Phone: 1-833-558-0945
• Mail: Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Settlement Administrator, PO Box 4153, Portland, OR 97208-4153
• Class counsel: Peter P. Hargitai, Joshua H. Roberts, Laura B. Renstrom and Michael M. Gropper, Holland & Knight LLP, 50 N. Laura Street, Suite 3900, Jacksonville, FL 32202

The notice says not to telephone the court or the clerk’s office about the settlement.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Costa Del Mar Settlement

Who qualifies for the Costa Del Mar settlement?

Florida citizens who bought non-prescription, non-promotional Costa sunglasses for personal use between July 28, 2013 and January 31, 2018 (Purchase Class), or who were charged a fee to replace damaged parts between July 28, 2012 and January 26, 2025 for sunglasses bought on or before January 31, 2018 (Repair Class).

Do I need a receipt to claim in the Costa Del Mar settlement?

Purchase Class members can claim up to five purchases without documentation. The administrator may require proof if you claim more than five.

Do I have to file a claim if Costa charged me for a repair?

No. Repair Class members are paid automatically from Costa’s records, as long as the repair fee exceeded $11.95.

How much will I get from the Costa Del Mar settlement?

It is not known yet. Each qualifying purchase or repair gets one equal share of its class’s money, and the size of a share depends on how many valid claims and qualifying repairs there are.

What is the Costa Del Mar settlement claim deadline?

January 11, 2027, submitted online or postmarked by that date, for Purchase Class members.

I live outside Florida. Can I join the Costa Del Mar settlement?

No. Both classes are limited to Florida citizens.

What if I bought prescription or promotional Costa sunglasses?

Those are excluded. The classes cover only non-prescription, non-promotional sunglasses.

Did Costa Del Mar admit it did anything wrong?

No. Costa denies the claims, and the settlement agreement says it is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing.

When will Costa Del Mar settlement payments be sent?

After the March 23, 2027 final approval hearing and once the judgment is final. Payments are due 37 days after the Effective Date, and an appeal would delay that.

Will Costa Del Mar change its repair program because of the settlement?

Not under the settlement. The agreement says the final order will not include injunctive relief.

What happens to unclaimed settlement money?

Under the agreement, a second distribution may go to members who cashed their first payment if enough money remains. Any final residue goes to Captains for Clean Water, subject to court approval.

Sources

1. Long Form Class Notice, Haney v. Costa Del Mar, Inc., Case No. 16-2017-CA-004794: https://costasunglasslitigation.com/Content/Documents/Long%20Form%20Notice.pdf
2. Class Action Settlement Agreement and Limited Release: https://costasunglasslitigation.com/Content/Documents/Settlement%20Agreement.pdf
3. Official claim form: https://costasunglasslitigation.com/Content/Documents/Claim%20Form.pdf
4. Official settlement website and FAQ: https://costasunglasslitigation.com/ and https://costasunglasslitigation.com/Home/FAQ

This article is general information, not legal advice. The settlement is subject to final court approval. Costa Del Mar, Inc. denies wrongdoing and liability, and the court has not ruled that the allegations were proven.

Researched and written by Israr Ahmad, legal content researcher and founder of AllAboutLawyer.com. All facts verified against the official Long Form Notice and Settlement Agreement published by the settlement administrator on CostaSunglassLitigation.com, as of October 14, 2026. Last Updated: October 14, 2026.