Walmart Shoppers Maybe Eligible for up to $500 in New Lawsuit

Claimants have until June 5 to join the lawsuit.

There's a scene in an episode of "The Brady Bunch" where Alice—the family's live-in housekeeper, cook, babysitter, and seemingly everything else—asks her boyfriend Sam, the butcher, to sell tickets for a performance Mrs. Brady is giving. Being a loyal boyfriend, he tells her if his customers won't buy the tickets, he'll put his thumb on the scale, threatening to charge customers more for meat than it weighed. Those of us watching on our living room TVs knew he was joking.

But the practice of butchers putting their thumbs on the scale has been done in real life, and now Walmart is accused of what essentially equates to putting its thumbs on the scales—inflating the weight of meat (and bagged citrus), charging customers more than the actual price per pound.

Walmart’s $45 Million Class Action Lawsuit

According to Top Class Actions, Walmart agreed to a $45 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought by plaintiffs. The lawsuit alleges the store "allowed customers to buy certain weighted groceries for more than the lowest in-store advertised price." Because Walmart settled, the lawsuit never went to trial. Instead, the store agreed to the settlement sum without admitting any guilt to the accusation that "Walmart's point-of-sale machines would artificially raise the weight of the weighted goods when marked at a discounted 'Rollback' price." Translated, that means the goods allegedly weighed less than the weight and price sticker said they did.

Anyone who purchased "variable-weight meat, poultry, pork, and seafood products labeled with a price-embedded bar code and designated by Walmart as part of its Department 93 products" or anyone who purchased bagged organic oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, and navel oranges in mesh or plastic bags between Oct. 19, 2018, and Jan. 19, 2024, is eligible to be part of the lawsuit. A website dedicated to the class action lawsuit has descriptions of the specific products.

How to File a Claim in the Lawsuit

Walmart shoppers who have not been alerted that they are listed as claimants but believe they are eligible can file a claim online, even if they don’t have a receipt. Those who have receipts have the money allocated differently than those who don’t have receipts, but it may be possible to look up past Walmart receipts on the store’s website.

As it currently stands, claimants with receipts are entitled to receive 2 percent of the total cost of the products they purchased, up to $500. Those without receipts who claim they bought up to 50 products will receive $10, and the payment increases until it caps off for those who claim they purchased 101 or more products, maxing out at $25.

Claimants have until June 5 to file a claim and join the lawsuit, which will have a final approval hearing on June 12, 2024.

Read the original article on All Recipes.