WALMART SETTLES THE DOJ OPIOID CASE AND WON'T SAY THE PRICE

🚨 Walmart just settled the Justice Department's opioid lawsuit — and nobody will say what it cost.

CNBC reports the DOJ and Walmart confirmed the settlement in separate statements Friday, both without disclosing terms. A joint stipulation dismissing the case was filed Thursday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

The case dates to 2020. The Justice Department accused the Bentonville, Arkansas retailer of repeatedly violating the federal Controlled Substances Act since 2013 by unlawfully dispensing prescriptions from its pharmacies. At the time, the department said Walmart could face billions of dollars in civil penalties.

📉 The case had already shrunk. In March 2024, U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly dismissed claims that Walmart failed to report suspicious prescriptions to the DEA and that pharmacists failed to document red flags. What he let stand was the claim that pharmacists filled prescriptions Walmart compliance personnel knew were invalid.

Walmart's statement: pleased to resolve the matter, and it will keep supporting its pharmacists. The DOJ said it was pleased to resolve the allegations.

This was one of the most significant DOJ opioid cases against a single company. It is not Walmart's first bill either — in 2022 the company agreed to pay $3.1 billion to settle thousands of suits from state and local governments over its pharmacies. CVS and Walgreens reached similar, larger settlements.

The CDC counts more than 905,000 U.S. opioid overdose deaths between 1999 and 2025, with annual deaths declining after 2022.

Should settlement figures like this be public by default?

#Walmart #Opioids #DOJ #Pharmacy #causeanuproar