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Kroger settles opioid lawsuit in Kentucky, will pay $110M
The payment is part of a $1.37 billion settlement agreement with states across the country
3 Min Read
Kroger has denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.Shutterstock
Kroger will have to pay out $110 million to the state of Kentucky over the next 13 years—dollars that will go towards addressing fallout from the state’s opioid crisis, the state’s attorney general announced last week. That money is part of a larger $1.37 billion settlement agreement in 2023 that Kroger reached with states across the country for failing to appropriately oversee the dispensing of overprescribed opioids at its pharmacies.
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Last year, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sued Kroger, alleging the grocery retail chain contributed to the opioid crisis.
Speaking in Covington Thursday, Coleman said his office “didn’t take the decision lightly” because, “Kroger has created a public image of trust in this region and in many parts of our commonwealth.” Coleman filed the lawsuit against Kroger in February, alleging that the retailer was responsible for doling out some 444 million doses of opioids into Kentucky over a 13-year period, with no internal monitoring system to report suspected abuse. Between 2006-2019, Kroger and its more than 100 pharmacies in the Commonwealth were responsible for over 11% of all opioid pills dispensed in Kentucky, the suit alleged.
Kroger has denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Why it matters
Kroger is one of the more traditional grocers being taken to task for its role in the country-wide opioid crisis—it joins the ranks of grocery pharmacy companies like CVS and Walgreens who have settled their own massive opioid lawsuits over the last five years. Kroger’s settlement with Kentucky is in line with those two retailers: the state will receive $94 million in abatement funds from CVS and approximately $102 million from Walgreens.
Technically, some $18 million of the settlement will go to Kentucky lawyer fees, leaving $90 million in abatement funds. Additionally, several other states will receive more from the global settlement than Kentucky did from moving forward on its own.
In their own words
“For over a decade, Kroger tragically fed the flames of the drug addiction fire that rages across every county of our commonwealth. But this devastation isn’t the end of the story: Kentucky is resilient, and we get back up, no matter how many times we are knocked down.” —Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement with the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and we hope the funds will be used to combat opioid abuse in the region. However, the claims that Kroger did not have internal training or guardrails around filling prescriptions for opioids are patently false.” —A Kroger spokesperson, in an email to SN
More details
Kroger must pay Kentucky an initial payment of about $6 million within 30 days. After that, the retailer owes the state five annual payments of about $6 million every year until 2029
Then, from 2030 to 2034, the company will pay Kentucky about $7 million each year. Finally, Kroger will pay out about $8 million each year from 2035 to 2038
Half of these settlement dollars will go to the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission with the other half being distributed among the state’s counties and cities, Coleman’s office said
In November, Kroger settled a similar opioid case with the state of California for $122 million
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