Walmart ordered to pay $101m for cancelling nitrile-gloves contract

New York – US personal protective equipment (PPE) supplier London Luxury has won a case against Walmart for its cancellation of a $500-million nitrile gloves order.

The New Rochelle, New York-based supplier won a $101-million (€95 million) jury verdict against Walmart on 10 April, law firm Holwell Shuster & Goldberg (HSG) announced.

“Walmart executives made a bad bet on PPE prices,” said London Luxury's New York-based counsels in a statement following the 10-day trial.

“When prices dropped, they [Walmart executives] tried to cancel the contract and invent excuses rather than take responsibility for their bad business decisions,” HSG added.

Evidence at trial, it explained, showed that Walmart agreed to buy “billions of nitrile examination gloves” in the disputed contracts, which were signed during Covid as demand for PPE boomed.

Walmart, it claimed, intended to resell the gloves to business customers in what would have been a novel business-to-business transaction for the retail giant.

Walmart counterclaimed for breach of contract, according to HSG.

The counterclaim, it stated, alleged that "London Luxury bribed the Walmart employee who led the gloves deal, took too long to deliver gloves, and delivered gloves that failed to meet quality testing and other specifications."

The jury, said the law firm, awarded London Luxury $101,218,680 on its breach of contract claims and rejected all of Walmart’s breach of contract counterclaims.

Walmart also asserted 'tort' claims, and the jury awarded "a mere $350,000 on those claims," the HS&G statement further noted.