BATON ROUGE - Attorney General Liz Murrill announced that the state of Louisiana agreed to an over $1 million settlement with Walmart to resolve allegations of the company deceiving drivers and costumers who participated in Walmart's Spark Driver Program.

The state alleged that Walmart misrepresented pre-tip amounts, base pay and incentive pay to Spark Driver gig workers. Those workers decide whether to accept "offers" to deliver orders based on Walmart's statements about the base pay and tips a driver can expect to receive if they complete the work.

Walmart would show one offer to the driver, it would split or change parts of the order after the driver accepted the offer, resulting in the driver receiving less than the base pay or the full tip, the state alleged. According to the lawsuit, Walmart also "deceived customers into thinking that 100 percent of their tip would go to drivers when the company didn't always pass on the full tips to the drivers and sometimes kept them entirely."

"Companies must not mislead gig workers about the pay they will receive or deceive consumers about where their tips are going. This settlement requires Walmart to implement an earnings verification program and helps ensure Louisiana drivers receive the earnings and tips they were promised," Murrill said.

As part of the settlement, Walmart is prohibited from modifying an offer for base and incentive pay or tips after the initial offer except under limited circumstances. In addition, Walmart is banned from misrepresenting the earnings and other information included in the delivery offers it makes to Spark drivers.