Statutory damages
Statutory damages are fixed dollar amounts set by a law for each violation, so you can recover without proving how much you lost.
Also called: liquidated damages, statutory damages per violation
Statutory damages are fixed dollar amounts set by a law for each violation, so you can recover without proving how much you lost.
What it means
Statutory damages are amounts of money that a law sets for a violation. Instead of proving how much you lost, you show the company broke the law, and the statute supplies the dollar figure. Lawmakers use them when harm is real but hard to measure, like an unwanted robocall or a fingerprint scan taken without consent.
The amounts depend on the law. The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act sets $500 for each violation of its autodialer and prerecorded-call rules. A court can increase the award to as much as three times that for willful or knowing violations. The Video Privacy Protection Act sets liquidated damages of $2,500. Illinois's biometric privacy law, BIPA, sets $1,000 for a negligent violation and $5,000 for an intentional or reckless one. The Fair Credit Reporting Act lets a court award $100 to $1,000 for a willful violation.
Those numbers describe what a court could award per violation. They are not what a class settlement pays. A settlement is negotiated, and one fund is shared among everyone in the class, so each person's payment is usually much smaller.
What it means for you
Statutory damages are one reason some settlements pay people who cannot show any financial loss. If a notice lets you claim without receipts, a law with set amounts may be behind it. But the law's number is not your payment. What you get depends on the size of the fund, how many people claim, and the fees and costs taken out first. Look at the notice for the estimated payment range and the claim deadline, and plan on a smaller amount than the statute suggests.
Example
Say a federal law gives $500 for each unwanted autodialed call, and a company called 400,000 people. On paper, that adds up to $200 million. The company settles by paying $4 million into a fund. After lawyers' fees and administration costs, about $2.6 million is left. If 40,000 people file valid claims, each share is roughly $65, far below $500.
FAQ
Actual damages are the losses you can prove, like money spent or wages lost. Statutory damages are a set amount the law provides for a violation, even if you cannot show a specific loss. Some laws let you recover whichever is greater.
No. The statute sets what a court could award for each violation. A class settlement is a negotiated total shared among all claimants after fees and costs, so individual payments are usually much smaller.
Related terms
- 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3), private right of action (Cornell LII)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2710(c), Video Privacy Protection Act civil action (Cornell LII)
- Clay v. Union Pacific Railroad, No. 25-2185 (7th Cir. Apr. 1, 2026), quoting 740 ILCS 14/20 (GovInfo)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1681n, willful noncompliance under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (Cornell LII)
Updated Oct 18, 2026. Plain-English definitions for general information — not legal or tax advice.