Walmart admits it overcharged customers, pays big penalty | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

We all need groceries. The bigger the family, the more supplies you need. It’s simpler if you go shopping at a large supermarket retailer, and it is cheaper if you buy in bulk.

Because of these conveniences, many Americans go to large supermarkets, such as Walmart (WMT) . What is interesting, though, is that many consumers are not at all pleased with what Walmart has to offer.

Walmart is considered the biggest global retailer, servicing more than 37 million customers per day and more than 255 million customers per week, according to Business Dasher.

With as many as 57% of customers preferring Walmart for groceries over other marketplaces, grocery sales are the biggest revenue generator for the giant.

What is it that mostly bothers Walmart customers?

Many consumers complain on social media platforms about customer service and Walmart’s treatment of employees.

One thing leads to another. If employees are indeed unhappy, chances are they will not be that customer-friendly.

According to Quora, some of the troubles consumers and employees have with Walmart include: low wages, poor status of employees, poor customer service, monopolization, and culture.

Walmart must be doing something right, considering its successful run and growth. According to Extensiv, “Walmart is the ultimate example of how to leverage supply chain management to reduce costs.”

Prices are extremely important for consumers, but sometimes large corporations can make pricing mistakes.

Walmart settles yet another consumer protection complaint.

Image Source&colon; Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Walmart settles consumer protection lawsuit, agrees to pay $5.6M

Walmart agreed to pay $5.6 million to settle a consumer protection dispute alleging the retail behemoth overcharged customers by selling products and goods weighing less than what was labeled.

The civil complaint, filed by a team of district attorneys’ offices, alleged that Walmart illegally charged higher prices than posted on the label, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office in California.

Per the report, these actions are in violation of California’s False Advertising and Unfair Competition Laws. In the Golden State, Walmart runs 280 stores, 10 of which are located in Santa Clara County.

“When someone brings an item to the register to be scanned, the price must be right,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen stated. “They expect it. California expects it. My Office expects it – and we will apply the law to make sure of it.”

The settlement includes the following court orders:

Walmart to pay $5.5 million in civil penalties;
Walmart to maintain workers who will be responsible for price and weight accuracy across stores in California;
Walmart to pay $139,908 for the investigation costs.
Santa Clara County to receive $1.38 million, with penalties going to the Santa Clara County DA’s Consumer Protection fund.

This is not the first time Walmart made overcharging mistakes

Running such a large business comes with a lot of challenges. Profits are usually the biggest drivers, and sometimes mistakes happen among retailers of that scope.

The new settlement isn’t the first one Walmart made regarding overcharging.

More Retail:

Back in December 2005, the California Attorney General’s Office and the San Diego District Attorney’s Office investigated accusations that Walmart stores in the state were scanning items at higher-than-advertised prices.

The investigation confirmed that 164 Walmart stores across 30 counties had been making scanning errors.

According to the terms of the 2008 judgment, overcharged consumers should have immediately received $3 off the lowest advertised price on the item, and if the item was less than $3, it should have been given for free.

In November 2010, Departments of Weights and Measures in 11 counties continued to monitor Walmart’s compliance and found that errors continued.

In March 2012, then-Attorney General Kamala D. Harris confirmed Walmart had agreed to pay $2.1 million for overcharging consumers in violation of a 2008 judgment against the retail chain.

More recently, the giant had to pay in another settlement unrelated to overcharging but nonetheless important.

On June 20, 2025, Walmart agreed to pay $10 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it ignored scammers who used its in-store money transfer services to take hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. consumers.