Walmart, Banking App Forced Delivery Drivers To Pay Millions In 'Junk Fees': CFPB

The agency said that drivers on Walmart's Spark platform couldn't immediately access their earnings without giving the app a cut.

The Consumer Financial Protection Board sued Walmart and a financial services firm on Monday for allegedly requiring delivery drivers to use an app that charged them fees to access their own earnings.

The CFPB said the drivers worked on Walmart’s gig platform known as Spark, in which independent contractors deliver store orders to customers’ homes out of their personal vehicles. Like Instacart and DoorDash, Walmart markets the platform as a way to “shop, deliver and earn” while working “as your own business” through its driver app.

Walmart and the financial services firm, Branch Messenger, opened accounts for drivers and deposited their earnings into them “without the drivers’ consent,” the CFPB alleged. Workers collectively paid millions of dollars in “junk fees” in order to move that money into their own bank accounts, according to the lawsuit.

CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told HuffPost the costs to drivers were “substantial.”

“Walmart told workers they would have same-day access to their earnings,” Chopra said. “Drivers actually in many cases had to pay fees to transfer their money to an actual bank account.”