US Supreme Court Strikes Down Massive Wal-Mart Class Action

Washington, DCPlaintiffs seeking compensation from Wal-Mart for alleged sex discrimination in hiring and promotion will have to wage their battles individually, after the US Supreme Court ruled this morning that a class-action lawsuit against the giant retailer can't go ahead.

span itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="display:block">In the Supreme Court's view, the proposed class would prove too unwieldy and diverse with as many as 1.6 million class participants—all current or former Wal-Mart employees—seeking a portion of billions of dollars in damages.

Individual lawsuits would result in smaller settlements overall, according to a bulletin this morning in The New York Times.

The decision could be considered a win for Wal-Mart, which would have likely faced larger compensation payouts with a class action v. lawsuits pursued by individual plaintiffs.

The Supreme Court ruling reversed a previous decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The ruling was unanimous.