Walmart and Capital One Resolve Legal Dispute Over Credit Card Agreement

Walmart and Capital One have settled their lawsuit over a credit card partnership, ending a conflict that began when Capital One was the exclusive issuer of Walmart-branded credit cards until the partnership ended recently.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan dismissed the case on Thursday after the two companies resolved all their claims. The details of the settlement were not disclosed.

In March, Judge Failla ruled that Walmart could end the partnership early due to Capital One’s poor customer service. This partnership had started in 2019.

A spokesperson for Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, declined to comment on the settlement. Capital One, located in McLean, Virginia, and its legal team also did not respond to requests for comments.

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, sued Capital One in April 2023. Walmart claimed that the bank was too slow to update transactions and did not quickly replace lost cards.

Capital One argued that these problems were not serious enough to end the partnership early and called it a "nuclear option." Despite the lawsuit, Capital One said it would transfer eligible Walmart credit cards to other cards and that customers would not lose their rewards.

In a related announcement, Capital One said in February it would buy Discover Financial Services in an all-stock deal valued at $35.3 billion.

The case, Walmart Inc et al v Capital One NA, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, case number 23-02942.

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