Walmart delivery drivers were pressured into using payment accounts opened illegally, a federal lawsuit says.

Nam Y. Huh/AP

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Nam Y. Huh/AP

A federal lawsuit alleges that Walmart deceived more than a million delivery drivers by setting up checking accounts without their knowledge or consent, using their Social Security numbers and other personal information.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday accused Walmart and payments platform Branch Messenger of charging delivery drivers more than $10 million in fees through those accounts since 2021. Walmart, in turn, accused the agency of filing a hasty lawsuit full of errors.

The government’s lawsuit alleges that Walmart told drivers who delivered its shipments to customers’ homes that they would lose their jobs if they did not use the store accounts to receive wages. According to the lawsuit, “thousands” of drivers had their wages deposited into a branch account before even agreeing to the terms and conditions.

Drivers who didn’t want or couldn’t find out how to access their store accounts lost their Walmart delivery orders and often lost wages that had been deposited into those store accounts.

Although Walmart told drivers they could access their earnings immediately, the lawsuit also details a complex process drivers had to follow to get their wages transferred to their usual bank accounts.

The “immediate” transfer option required a fee paid to Branch that totaled more than $10 million over the years, the lawsuit says. Other options would take several days, and both options had daily and monthly limits on how much a driver could transfer.

Walmart, which launched its Spark Driver delivery program in 2018, said the consumer agency never gave the company “a fair opportunity” to make its case during the investigation.

“The CFPB’s hasty lawsuit is riddled with factual errors and contains exaggerations and blatant misrepresentations of accepted legal principles,” Walmart’s spokesman said in a statement, adding the company will defend itself vigorously “in a court that, unlike the CFPB, respects culpability. “Legal Proceedings”.

Monday’s lawsuit comes days after the consumer agency sued Zelle’s operator, as well as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, “over the payment provider’s failure to protect consumers from widespread fraud.”