Walmart to Pay $50 Million to Settle Opioid Lawsuit, US Says

A Walmart spokeswoman in a statement on Friday said the company was pleased to resolve the case.

In a statement in 2020, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil division, said, “As one of the largest pharmacy chains and wholesale drug distributors in the country, Walmart had the responsibility and the means to help prevent the diversion of prescription opioids.”

The settlement announced on Friday is the latest step in the government’s attempts to hold companies accountable for what it says were their roles in the opioid epidemic.

From 1999 to 2023, approximately 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose, including deaths involving illegal and prescription opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2022, Walmart agreed to distribute $3.1 billion to end thousands of lawsuits brought by local governments and tribes.

Kroger, a grocery chain, agreed in 2023 to pay $1.2 billion to states, local governments and tribes to settle claims that its retail pharmacies played a role in fueling the opioid crisis.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/us/walmart-opioid-lawsuit-settlement.html