Aug 28 (Reuters) – Walmart has settled a U.S. government lawsuit accusing the retailer of fueling a nationwide opioid epidemic by unlawfully dispensing prescriptions from its pharmacies, the Department of Justice said on Friday.
Terms were not immediately available.
The Justice Department sued Walmart in 2020, accusing the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company of repeatedly violating the federal Controlled Substances Act since 2013. It said at the time that Walmart could face billions of dollars in civil penalties.
“The department is pleased to have reached a settlement with Walmart resolving allegations that its pharmacies failed to comply with their obligations under the Controlled Substances Act in dispensing opioids and other controlled substances,” a Justice Department spokesperson said.
Walmart said in a statement: “We are pleased to resolve this matter and will continue supporting the exceptional work our pharmacists do every day to provide outstanding patient care.”
In March 2024, U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly narrowed the case, dismissing claims that Walmart failed to report suspicious prescriptions to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and that Walmart pharmacists failed to document “red flags” associated with prescriptions.
Connolly let the government pursue a claim that pharmacists dispensed prescriptions that Walmart compliance personnel knew were invalid. A fourth claim, that pharmacists dispensed prescriptions they knew were invalid, also remained pending.
The lawsuit was one of the most significant Justice Department cases against a single company over the opioid epidemic.
Other companies targeted over opioids included Purdue Pharma, which pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2020 related to its painkiller OxyContin after filing for bankruptcy protection, and the drug wholesaler Cencora, formerly known as AmerisourceBergen.
In 2022, Walmart agreed to pay $3.1 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits by state and local governments over its pharmacies’ role in the opioid crisis.
More than 905,000 people died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2025, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual deaths began declining after 2022, the agency said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Andrew Goudsward in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)
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