WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Walmart has agreed to pay $100 million to settle charges that the company caused delivery drivers to lose tens of millions of dollars in earnings, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said in a statement on Thursday.
The FTC, along with 11 states, had alleged in a complaint that Walmart deceived customers by falsely claiming all customer tips would go to drivers and also showed inflated base pay and tip amounts to drivers in its Spark Driver delivery program, according to the statement.
The FTC said that in addition to the judgment, Walmart is barred from further misrepresenting earnings in delivery offers it makes to Spark drivers.
“Labor markets cannot function efficiently without truthful and non-misleading information about earnings and other material terms,” Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the statement.
A spokesperson for Walmart said the company had issued payments to impacted drivers and continues to make additional payments as appropriate.
“We value the hard work and dedication of the drivers who deliver great service and products to our customers… We are continuously improving procedures to ensure fairness and transparency for drivers,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The FTC warned that protecting workers was a top priority and called on companies offering gig work to be transparent and accurate and implement robust compliance systems.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Katharine Jackson; editing by Michelle Nichols and Nia Williams)
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