ELIGIBLE customers can receive a free slice of a $500million bread settlement, after a grocery chain was caught price fixing.
Shoppers in Canada are entitled to a cut of the dough if they bought bread anywhere in the country, apart from Quebec, in the last eight years.
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Shops under Loblaw and Weston have agreed to a massive $500million settlement in response to the lawsuit which makes claims of a bread price-fixing scheme.
Managing partner Jay Strosberg of Strosberg Wingfield Sasso LLP: “To put it into context, this is the largest price fixing settlement in Canadian history.”
A spokesperson for Loblaw and Weston said that the settlement had been approved and details about how it would be distributed to Canadians were finalised, but it was still pending court approval.
Loblaw chairman Galen Weston apologised for their involvement.
He said: “On behalf of the Weston group of companies, we are sorry for the price-fixing behaviour we discovered and self-reported in 2015.”
The chairman added that “this behaviour should never have happened”.
The settlement comes after news broke eight years ago about an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread in Canada.
It is alleged that companies involved conspired to artificially inflate the price of a loaf of bread between 2001 and 2015 by at least $1.50.
Two other class-action lawsuits, one based in Quebec and the other one in Ontario, continue to work their way through courts.
Strosberg said “Loblaw didn’t do the right thing when it participated in an alleged conspiracy, but they saw the light and decided to make amends and come to the table with meaningful compensation.”
He continued: “If anything, I think the public should be heartened and should reward Loblaws for doing the right thing.”
To get a slice of the big cash pie, anyone that bought a bag of packaged bread between January 1 2001 and December 31 2021 is eligible – and have automatically been made a member of the suit.
Class members do not need to take any action but can receive updates on the legal proceedings here.
To self-exclude, you must do so by April 25.
It comes as a $4.4million “subscription” settlement was agreed by Streamlabs after the company was alleged to have violated California’s subscription laws.
Plaintiffs said the company enrolled customers in automatic subscriptions to Streamlabs Pro services without their permission.
And earlier this week, Elon Musk announced that he would consider giving Americans $5,000 stimulus checks, taken from the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) savings.
