Walmart Lawsuit: Get Up to $500 as Part of a $45M Settlement

Salinas, United States - April 8, 2014: Walmart store exterior. Walmart is an American multinational corporation that runs large discount stores and is the world&#039;s largest public corporation. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

If you’ve shopped at Walmart at some point over the last several years, you could be eligible to receive up to $500 as part of a $45 million settlement from the grocery chain to resolve a class-action lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, claims that “Walmart uses unfair and deceptive business practices to deceivingly, misleadingly, and unjustly pilfer, to Walmart’s financial benefit, its customers’ hard-earned grocery dollars.” These “unfair” practices have to do with customers overpaying for certain weighted grocery items, including meat, seafood and bagged citrus. And although Walmart denies any wrongdoing on their part, it has decided to settle.

Specifically, the lawsuit accuses Walmart of falsely inflating product weight, mislabeling the weight of bagged produce and overcharging for sold-by-weight clearance products — practices that seemingly go against Walmart’s mission “to save people money so they can live better.” It claims that at checkout, Walmart’s system increased the weight of certain products, resulting in customers overpaying. Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that Walmart used price stickers on bulk organic oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, and navel oranges that falsely represented the cost per ounce, and that sold-by-weight clearance products were labeled as costing less than they actually were.

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Who is eligible for payment?

Anyone who purchased certain weighted goods (such as pork, poultry and seafood) or bagged citrus in person at a Walmart retail store, supercenter, or neighborhood market in the United States or Puerto Rico from October 19, 2018, through January 19, 2024, is eligible. You can find and search through the full list of eligible products online, as well as submit a claim. Claims for payment must be submitted online or through the mail by June 5, 2024.

When filling out the claim form, customers will be asked to provide receipts, proof of purchase or other documentation that verifies eligible products purchased, and will receive 2% of the total cost — capped at $500.00. If you don’t have documentation, you can still receive $10 to $25 depending on the number of goods that were purchased. If you wish to object to or exclude yourself from the settlement, you must do so no later than May 22, 2024.

The final approval hearing will take place on June 12, 2024.

Erin pairs personal experience with research and is passionate about sharing personal finance advice with others. Previously, she was a freelancer focusing on the credit card side of finance, but has branched out since then to cover other aspects of personal finance. Erin is well-versed in traditional media with reporting, interviewing and research, as well as using graphic design and video and audio storytelling to share with her readers.