U.S. retail giant Walmart has reached an agreement for the payment of $3.1 billion (€3.003 billion) to settle all potential claims in connection with the opioid crisis in the United States, as well as settling potential claims by state and local governments if all conditions are met.
In any case, the multinational has stressed that the agreement does not imply any admission of liability on the part of Walmart, which has emphasized that it will «continue to vigorously defend itself» against any claim that is not resolved through the established settlement framework.
For her part, New York Attorney General Letitia James noted that the settlement settles allegations that the company contributed to the national opioid crisis by failing to regulate opioid prescriptions in its stores.
In addition to the $3.1 billion payment, which will be divided among the signatory states and local governments to be used for treatment, recovery and reduction of opioid use, the settlement will include a number of requirements that Walmart must meet, including enhanced oversight to prevent the issuance of fraudulent prescriptions and the monitoring of suspicious prescriptions.
«For decades, the opioid epidemic has devastated communities here in New York and across the country,» said the New York attorney general, for whom Walmart pharmacies played an undeniable role in the crisis.
CLOSES THE QUARTER WITH A LOSS.
Walmart also reported on Tuesday that in the third fiscal quarter, which runs from August to October, it recorded a loss of 1,798 million dollars (1,741 million euros), compared to profits of 3,105 million dollars (3,007 million euros) in the same period of the previous year as a result of the impact of the agreement.
Specifically, the multinational has recorded an adverse impact on its quarterly accounts of 3,325 million dollars (3,220 million euros) due to the agreement to resolve possible lawsuits over the opioid crisis in the United States.
Thus, in the first nine months of its fiscal year, the multinational has reduced its net attributable profit by 46.5%, to 5,405 million dollars (5,235 million euros).
Walmart’s sales in the first nine months of its fiscal year totaled 447,241 million dollars (433,207 million euros), up 6.5%, including a growth of 8.7% in the third quarter, to 152,813 million dollars (148,018 million euros).
For the year as a whole, the multinational has revised its forecasts upwards and now anticipates a 5.5% growth in consolidated sales for the year, despite assuming an adverse impact of some 4.1 billion dollars (3.971 billion euros) in relation to the dollar exchange rate.
The multinational also expects its adjusted earnings per share for the full year to register a decline of between 6% and 7%.
