If you have the receipts, you’re theoretically eligible for a $500 check from Walmart as part of a class-action legal settlement. Realistically, you’re probably eligible for a maximum of ten bucks. But that’s not bad compensation for the time it will take to fill out a simple online form.
For the second time in the past three years, Walmart has agreed to set up a multimillion-dollar fund to reimburse shoppers who believe they were overcharged for buying certain fresh food products in its stores. Walmart denies the allegations, but agreed to the payments as part of a settlement agreement reached last fall.
Florida resident Vassilios Kukorinis sued Walmart back in 2022, claiming consistent discrepancies between the unit price displayed on Walmart’s meat and produce price tags, and the price charged at the register. He cited multiple instances where the actual weight of a product was either inflated on the label, or inflated at the register, to justify a higher total selling price. His lawsuit sought damages for himself and for all other Walmart shoppers who may have been impacted.
The two sides agreed to settle their dispute last September, with terms of that settlement to be determined. And now those terms have been set.
Anyone who bought certain weighted meat or produce products at Walmart during a period of more than five years, from October 2018 through January 2024, is eligible to submit a claim for reimbursement. A list of eligible products and an online claim form can be found on a special website set up by the settlement administrator. Claims will be accepted from now through June 5th.
Walmart has set aside $45 million to settle the case – but don’t get big dollar signs in your eyes just yet. The terms of the settlement include a detailed table of who is eligible for how much, based on how many eligible products you may have purchased.
The good news is, you don’t need to have saved any receipts. On the honor system, if you submit a claim that says you purchased anywhere from one to 50 affected items during the five-year period, you’re eligible for a $10 payment. Up to 75 items will get you $15, up to 100 is worth $20, and 101 or more is good for a $25 payment.
If you do happen to have receipts for your purchases, you’re eligible to receive 2% cash back for each of the weighted products you purchased, up to a maximum of $500.
That’s the source of the “up to $500 payout” that many news stories and websites have touted. But few claimants – or, more likely, no claimants at all – are likely to get that much. First of all, who saves five-year-old receipts? Even if you do – or if you have digital receipts saved in your Walmart account – in order to get the full $500, representing 2% of your purchases, you’d have to produce receipts showing the purchase of $25,000 worth of eligible purchases. 2% is also far less than the amounts alleged to be overcharged, so unless you have hundreds of eligible purchases with the receipts to prove it, you’re probably better off just claiming the ten bucks.
Even that amount isn’t guaranteed, though. If the amount of all eligible claims exceeds the value of the settlement fund, then each individual payment will be decreased accordingly. So if more than 4.5 million people claim even just the minimum amount, each will receive less than $10 on a pro rata basis.
Once all claims are filed, the judge in the case will still have to hear any objections to the settlement and consider how much the plaintiffs’ attorneys are owed. Only after all that’s done, can the settlement be given final approval and payments be sent out.
So don’t get your hopes up for a large, or speedy, payout. But some money at some future date, is better than no money at all. And at least the minimum payout is greater than the last time Walmart settled a similar case a few years ago, when $10 was the absolute maximum – not the minimum – you could get without a proof of purchase.
If you purchased eligible meat or produce items at Walmart any time over the past five years, then, go ahead and submit your claim. And then keep a close eye on those price stickers and the price at the register – otherwise there’s a chance you could be submitting for a third refund in the not-too-distant future.
Image source: Walmart
You are absolutely right
By Lawyers from Layers to Lawyers.
This is in regards of over priced meats.