Class period
The class period is the range of dates during which something had to have happened to you for you to be part of the settlement.
It might be when you bought the product, when you were employed, when your data was exposed, or when you held the shares. If your purchase or employment falls outside those dates, you are not in the class, however similar your situation looks.
The dates come from the legal claims: statutes of limitation, when the conduct started, and when it stopped. They are rarely round numbers and they are not negotiable by the administrator.
Check the class period before anything else. It is the most common reason a claim is rejected, and it takes ten seconds to rule yourself in or out.
Related terms
Class action settlement
A class action settlement is an agreement that ends a lawsuit brought on behalf of a large group of people, where the defendant pays into a fund that group members can claim from without suing individually.
Proof of purchase
Proof of purchase is documentation showing you bought the product or used the service, usually a receipt, an order confirmation, a bank statement line, or a photograph of the item.