WALMART has been accused of a mass privacy breach using employees’ personal information to illegally open up online bank accounts, according to a lawsuit.
The complaint, filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, claims that since 2021, Walmart and Branch opened Branch banking accounts for more than 1 million Spark drivers.
Spark drivers are independent contractors who fulfill online orders for Walmart and deliver them to customers’ doorsteps.
However, in order to get paid, Walmart told drivers that they must use a Branch banking account or risk being terminated, according to the lawsuit.
Thousands of drivers had their wages deposited into a Branch account before ever agreeing to terms and conditions, the government said.
Accessing their paystubs turned out to be a “complex issue,” and at times, it “took weeks” to obtain their wages.
When drivers used the platform, they faced “numerous delays or fees if they needed to transfer the money into a different account,” the complaint read.
The transfer costs have resulted in more than “$10 million in junk fees.”
Drivers who didn’t want to or couldn’t figure out how to access their Branch accounts would lose their Walmart Spark employment, according to the complaint.
Oftentimes, employees would also lose the wages they earned that were deposited to the online banking platform.
The lawsuit describes Spark drivers as “a woman, has children, does not have a college degree, and is low income.”
“Companies cannot force workers into getting paid through accounts that drain their earnings with junk fees,” Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), told CNN.
Despite CFPB’s findings, Walmart denied the claims, calling the lawsuit “riddled with factual errors.”
“The CFPB’s rushed lawsuit is riddled with factual errors and contains exaggerations, and blatant misstatements of settled principles of law,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement.
“The CFPB never allowed Walmart a fair opportunity to present its case during their rushed investigation.
“We look forward to vigorously defending the Company before a court that, unlike the CFPB, honors the due process of law.”
Meanwhile, the CFPB accused Branch of failing to investigate and resolve errors and misleading advertising, among other claims.
Branch denied the claims, calling the lawsuit’s premise more about “media attention.”
“Despite the company’s extensive cooperation with its investigation, the CFPB refused to engage with Branch in any meaningful way about this matter, instead rushing to file a lawsuit,” Branch said in a statement to CNN.
“Branch strongly disagrees with the lawsuit filed today by the CFPB, which misstates the law and facts, and includes intentional omissions to mask the Bureau’s clear overreach.”
The company added that the CFPB’s lawsuit “has nothing to do with the law or protecting workers.”
What is a Spark driver?
Walmart has its own delivery drivers which it refers to as Spark Drivers.
Spark Drivers.
A venture started by Walmart in 2018, Spark Drivers function the same as independent contractors who work for Doordash, Instacart, or Grubhub.
The driver chooses when and where to accept a job.
They then collect goods from Walmart and scan a barcode at checkout.
They are not required to scan each individual item in the order, which sometimes raises eyebrows.
