Dr. Squatch Buyers Can Claim 50 Cents Per ‘Natural’ Product, Up to $12.50 a Household, From a $9 Million Settlement by Nov. 27

Dr. Squatch built a following selling bar soaps and deodorants with words like “natural” on the label. A lawsuit over that word has now produced a $9 million settlement, and buyers from nearly eight years of sales can claim 50 cents for each eligible product, up to $12.50 per household. The deadline to file is Nov. 27.

50 cents a product, $12.50 a household

The payment schedule is simple. According to FOX 5 New York’s report on the settlement, claimants receive $0.50 per eligible product. Without proof of purchase, a household can claim up to five products, for a maximum of $2.50. With proof of purchase, it can claim up to 20 more products, for another $10. The combined cap is 25 products, or $12.50 per household.

In practice, a household that bought 10 eligible products over the years and kept receipts for five of them could claim all 10, which works out to $5 at the starting rate. A household with no receipts at all would claim five products, for $2.50.

Those amounts are not locked in. The official settlement website says payments “shall be calculated pro rata based on the number of Valid Claims” submitted, so the final figure could move up or down depending on how many people file. If valid claims add up to less than the available money, the per-product amount rises; if they add up to more, it falls.

Money will come out of the $9 million fund only after costs. An Open Class Actions review of the settlement reports that attorneys’ fees of up to $3 million, plus costs, service awards and administration, would be paid from the fund if the court approves them. No payment date has been announced.

Claims can be filed online or by printing and mailing the paper form. Payment options include paper check, PayPal, Zelle and an electronic Mastercard, according to The Cool Down’s coverage of the claim process.

Which products and purchases count

The class covers people in the United States who bought covered products from Dr. Squatch between Nov. 1, 2018, and Aug. 29, 2026, the settlement website says. Current and former Dr. Squatch employees, officers, directors and agents, along with their immediate families, are excluded, and Open Class Actions notes that purchases made for resale do not count.

The covered items are Dr. Squatch products with “natural” on the label. A Hip2Save summary of the settlement lists select bar soaps, deodorants, shampoos, conditioners, body washes, toothpastes, colognes and beard oils. The Cool Down reports that the settlement covers every size, scent and variation of 19 “natural”-labeled items.

The notice groups those into 19 categories, according to Open Class Actions: bar soap, beard oil, beard oil and cologne, lotion, body wash, cologne, cologne oil, conditioner, deodorant, face wash, hand sanitizer, hand soap, lip balm, lotion to powder, post shave, shampoo, shave butter, toothpaste and wipes.

The class period has closed. Purchases made after Aug. 29, 2026, do not qualify, so a bar picked up this fall does not add to a claim.

Proof matters only beyond the first five products. The first five are claimed on a signed attestation, Open Class Actions reports. The next 20 require a point-of-purchase receipt, physical or online, from a retailer showing the purchase and its date within the class period. Claiming more than five products without proof reduces the claim to the no-proof amount rather than voiding it.

Each household may file one claim, and a household means everyone living at the same physical address. The settlement administrator is Postlethwaite & Netterville, an EisnerAmper company.

The fight over the word “natural”

The case is Guzman v. Dr. Squatch, LLC, No. 25STCV03523, in the Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County. Consumers alleged that Dr. Squatch advertised its soaps, shampoos, deodorants and other products as “natural” even though they contained synthetic ingredients, FOX 5 reported.

The Cool Down reports that the ingredients named in the case included magnesium hydroxide and hydrogenated vegetable oil, and that court documents described magnesium hydroxide as an inorganic compound.

Dr. Squatch denies the allegations and any wrongdoing, and says its products were properly labeled, according to FOX 5. The company agreed to the settlement to avoid the cost and uncertainty of continued litigation. No court has found that the labels were false, and the settlement is not an admission by the company. The case was filed in Los Angeles in 2025, according to its case number, and settled before trial.

Coverage turns on the label, not the product type. Open Class Actions reports that the qualifying question is whether the word “natural” appeared on the product’s label during the class period.

The March 2 hearing

The deadlines to opt out or object passed on Oct. 13. The claim deadline is Nov. 27, 2026, at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific time for online claims, according to Open Class Actions, or postmarked by that date for paper forms, which go to the settlement administrator in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The final approval hearing is set for March 2, 2027, at 10 a.m. Pacific time in Department 11 of the Los Angeles Superior Court at 312 N. Spring Street, the settlement website says. Payments would follow only if the court grants final approval, Hip2Save notes, and objections or appeals could push the timing back.

That puts the Dr. Squatch claim among a cluster of household-name deadlines this fall, alongside Amazon’s Dec. 1 returns settlement deadline and Apple’s Siri settlement, with claims due Dec. 21.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States – CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons