Walmart will pay $100 million to resolve federal and state allegations that it misled gig workers about how much they would earn delivering packages through its Spark Driver platform, regulators announced.
The Walmart $100M settlement stems from claims brought by the Federal Trade Commission and 11 states, accusing the retail giant of providing inaccurate information about pay and customer tips to drivers using the Spark Driver app. Authorities said the discrepancies left drivers collectively shorted by tens of millions of dollars.
According to the complaint filed in federal court in California, problems with driver compensation date back to at least 2021. Regulators allege that Walmart failed to deliver on promised earnings in certain recurring situations — including when customer orders were split into multiple deliveries or when package distribution among delivery jobs was altered.
The FTC further alleged that Walmart misrepresented how customer tips were handled, telling customers their tips would go entirely to drivers when that was not always the case.
Delivery drivers will receive approximately $79 million of the total settlement amount, FTC officials confirmed. The company did not specify how much individual drivers might receive on average. In addition to driver compensation, Walmart agreed to pay $10 million to the FTC and $11 million to participating states.
Regulators characterized the issue as systemic.
“Rather than address these well-known issues, however, Walmart has persisted in these practices and continues to attract and retain drivers and customers to Spark with false earning claims and misleading representations,” the complaint states.
FTC leadership emphasized the broader implications for the gig economy and labor market transparency. “Labour 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 announcing the deal.
The settlement also imposes operational restrictions. Walmart is barred from changing an initial offer of compensation for delivery jobs except under limited circumstances. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Mark Meador described the agreement as representing “significant changes to Walmart’s business practices to ensure that Walmart never does anything like this again”.
Walmart said it has already begun issuing payments to affected drivers after regulators approached the company last year. In a statement, the company said it is improving internal systems to “ensure fairness and transparency”.
“We value the hard work and dedication of the drivers who deliver great service and products to our customers,” Walmart added.
Launched in 2018, Spark Driver became a central part of Walmart’s strategy to compete in e-commerce and last-mile delivery services. More than one million individuals have delivered packages through the platform, making it one of the largest last-mile delivery networks in the United States.
