Walmart Agrees to $100 Million FTC Settlement Over Spark Driver Pay

Khac Phu Nguyen

Fri, February 27, 2026 at 3:51 AM GMT+9 2 min read

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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT) has agreed to pay $100 million to resolve allegations from the US Federal Trade Commission and 11 states that it withheld tips and misrepresented earnings for drivers participating in its Spark delivery program. In a complaint filed in California federal court, the FTC alleged that Walmart misled drivers about how base pay, tips and special incentive opportunities were calculated, and did not inform customers that tips would not be fully paid to the person completing the delivery. States including Arizona, California and Illinois joined the action, reinforcing the breadth of the regulatory challenge.

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The settlement arrives at a moment when Walmart’s digital platform has become one of its primary growth engines. The company’s e-commerce operations expanded 24% globally last year and exceeded $150 billion in sales, contributing to a market capitalization that has reached $1 trillion. Walmart has continued broadening its delivery ecosystem, ranging from early-morning services to pharmacy distribution, and began delivering Ozempic and other refrigerated prescriptions last fall. Spark drivers, classified as independent contractors, play a central role in fulfilling these last-mile orders, linking the company’s online momentum to its operational execution.

FTC officials framed the case as part of a wider push to ensure transparency in gig-economy labor practices. Christopher Mufarrige, head of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said labor markets cannot function efficiently without truthful and non-misleading information about earnings and other material terms. The agency previously sued Amazon.com Inc. in 2021 over alleged tip withholding tied to its Flex program, resulting in more than $60 million in reimbursements, and later reached a $25 million resolution with Grubhub Holdings Inc. over allegations tied to delivery costs and driver earnings. Walmart said it has issued payments to affected drivers and continues to make additional payments as appropriate, while improving procedures to enhance fairness and transparency steps that investors may view as important as regulatory oversight of gig-based models continues to evolve.

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