Walmart Spark driver lawsuit overview:
- Who: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 11 states have reached a proposed $100 million settlement with Walmart Inc.
- Why: Regulators alleged Walmart misled Spark delivery drivers about pay and deceived customers about how tips would be distributed.
- Where: The proposed settlement was filed in California federal court.
Walmart has agreed to a proposed $100 million settlement to resolve claims brought by the Federal Trade Commission and 11 states alleging the company misled drivers participating in its Spark delivery program about how much they would be paid.
According to the complaint, Walmart’s Spark platform recruits gig drivers to deliver orders from Walmart stores and warehouses. Drivers allegedly accepted delivery “offers” based on representations about expected base pay, tips and incentives.
Regulators claim those earnings representations were often inaccurate and resulted in drivers losing tens of millions of dollars since at least 2021.
The FTC and states alleged Walmart misrepresented that 100% of “pre-tips” selected by customers would go to the driver who accepted the offer. In reality, tips were sometimes split among multiple drivers if orders were divided into more than one delivery.
The complaint also alleges Walmart removed or reduced tips when combining multiple orders into a single batch and misrepresented that a driver would receive a tip even if it was canceled or never collected from the customer.
In addition, regulators claim Walmart reduced drivers’ base pay after an offer had already been accepted by adding or subtracting items from batched orders. The lawsuit alleges the company misrepresented the criteria necessary to qualify for certain incentives, including referral bonuses and completing a set number of deliveries within a 30-day period.
Settlement includes driver fund and compliance reforms
Under the proposed consent agreement, Walmart will pay a $100 million judgment. Of that amount, $10 million will go to the FTC, $11 million will be distributed among participating states and $16.2 million will fund payments to affected drivers through a dedicated driver compensation fund.
The remaining portion of the judgment will be suspended provided Walmart complies with the agreement’s nonmonetary conditions and accurately provided data during the investigation.
The settlement also requires Walmart to implement an earnings verification program to ensure drivers receive the pay and incentives they are promised when signing up for or accepting delivery offers.
The agreement further prohibits Walmart from misrepresenting details about delivery offers or driver compensation and requires the company to track and correct underpayments.
The states joining the FTC in the action include Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.
Walmart said in a statement it values its drivers and has issued payments to impacted drivers while continuing to improve procedures to ensure fairness and transparency.
Last year, Walmart agreed to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that it allowed scammers to use its wire transfer services to defraud consumers out of millions of dollars.
What do you think about the Walmart Spark driver settlement? Let us know in the comments.
The FTC is represented in-house by Aaron M. Schue, Jordan X. Navarrette, Miles D. Freeman, David L. Hankin and Barbara Chun.
The state of California is represented by Alameda County District Attorney Andres H. Perez, and the rest of the states are represented by their respective attorneys general.
The Walmart Spark driver lawsuit is Federal Trade Commission, et al. v. Walmart Inc., Case No. 3:26-cv-01655, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Don’t Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
One thought on Walmart $100M class action settlement resolves FTC driver pay lawsuit
Add me