Published
August 15, 2026
This settlement resolves claims that Kroger reported inflated usual and customary prices for prescription drugs, allegedly leaving insured customers paying more at the pharmacy counter. If you filled a prescription at a Kroger-owned pharmacy using insurance any time since December 2018, you can file for a share of the $17 million fund.
Current Status
Claims are open. The deadline to file is December 21, 2026, and the notice gives that date without a cutoff time or timezone. The Court granted preliminary approval and has scheduled a Fairness Hearing for January 11, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. EST before Judge Algenon L. Marbley in Columbus, Ohio; no final approval order has been entered, and no payment date has been announced as of August 15, 2026. If you paid for a prescription at a Kroger-owned pharmacy using insurance since December 9, 2018, the action to take now is to file a Claim Form — nothing is paid automatically, and doing nothing means receiving nothing.
Status
Claims Open
Claim Deadline
December 21, 2026
No cutoff time or timezone stated in the notice
Estimated Payout
Pro rata share of $17M
Scaled to what you paid · no per-person estimate published
Proof Required
Yes
Notice ID & Confirmation Code to file online · documentation required for claims of $8,000 or more, and for anyone not on Kroger's purchaser list
What Changed Recently?
The Court preliminarily approved the settlement and the claims process opened, which is what turns this from a case being litigated into something a pharmacy customer can act on. The class period was also carried forward to August 23, 2026, so recent prescriptions count, not only older ones.The underlying dispute is about a pricing term. Pharmacies report a "usual and customary" price — the U&C price — when they submit prescription claims for reimbursement. Plaintiffs allege Kroger inflated its U&C prices by leaving out the lower prices it charged under its Savings Club program, and that insured customers paid inflated amounts as a result. They brought claims for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and unjust enrichment.
Kroger denies the allegations. It maintains it acted appropriately in reporting its retail prices as its U&C prices, and contends that the special prices available to members who joined the Savings Club, paid an annual membership fee, and met other conditions are not its "usual" or "customary" prices. The notice states the matter settled with no findings of liability or wrongdoing by Kroger, and the Court has not decided who is right.
Who Qualifies?
The Settlement Class is all individuals in the United States and its territories who, at any point from December 9, 2018 through August 23, 2026, paid in whole or in part for one or more prescription drugs from Kroger using their insurance.Three parts of that definition do most of the work. You must have used prescription insurance benefits to fill the prescription — a prescription paid entirely out of pocket, or through a discount program instead of insurance, is outside the class. You must have paid something toward it, though paying "in part" is enough, so an ordinary copay counts. And it is nationwide, with no residency requirement and no requirement that you ever joined the Savings Club.
"Kroger" here means The Kroger Co. and all pharmacies owned or operated by The Kroger Co. or any of its affiliates, which reaches past stores carrying the Kroger name. The full list is set out in Exhibit A to the Plan of Allocation and Distribution on the official settlement website; check a specific store against that exhibit rather than assuming from the sign out front.
Excluded are the judges presiding over any portion of the action and their immediate families and staffs; Kroger's officers and directors, along with those of its subsidiaries, parents, successors, predecessors and affiliates, and any entity in which Kroger holds a controlling interest; anyone who timely and validly requests exclusion; the legal representatives, successors and assigns of those excluded individuals; and anyone who has separately sued, filed an arbitration demand, or participated in a settlement against Kroger over its U&C price determinations in connection with the Savings Club — though that last exclusion does not apply to someone who voluntarily dismissed such claims without prejudice.
How Much Can You Get?
No per-person figure has been published, and the structure is the reason. Kroger pays $17,000,000 into a Settlement Fund. From that, the Court may award attorneys' fees of up to one third of the fund, out-of-pocket costs and expenses of up to $610,325.71 plus interest, service awards of up to $5,000 to each named Plaintiff, and notice and administration expenses. What remains is the Net Settlement Fund.The Net Settlement Fund is divided pro rata among everyone who files a valid claim, weighted by what each claimant paid. Your Distribution Amount is your Recognized Claim divided by the total Recognized Claims of all authorized claimants, multiplied by the Net Settlement Fund. In practice that means two variables move your payment: how much you personally paid for Kroger prescriptions using insurance during the class period, and how many other people file. Someone with years of regular prescriptions should expect more than someone with a single copay, and every share shrinks as the claim total grows.
The Plan of Allocation and Distribution sorts claimants into Known Claimants and Unknown Claimants depending on whether Kroger identified them as potential class members, and the two groups face different documentation requirements rather than different payment formulas. That plan remains subject to change until the Court approves it, so the current version on the official settlement website governs.
What Proof or Documentation Is Required?
Treat this as a proof-required settlement. There are three separate requirements, and which ones apply depends on your situation.If you received a notice with a claim identification number, you are a Known Claimant, and the online claim form asks for the Notice ID and Confirmation Code from that notice. That identifier alone makes this Proof Required: Yes — someone who never received a notice cannot simply file the short way.
Every claimant attests on the Claim Form to their estimated or actual payments to Kroger for prescriptions filled using insurance during the class period. Anyone whose total claimed amount is $8,000 or more must submit supporting documentation or data sufficient to identify those payments.
Below $8,000, documentation is still required from anyone the Settlement Administrator determines is not on Kroger's list of known purchasers. Those claimants are contacted by the administrator after filing and asked to supply it. If you did not receive a notice but believe you qualify, you can still file — the route runs through the Claim Form on the official settlement website, and you should expect a documentation request to follow.
What Is the Deadline?
Claim Forms are due December 21, 2026. The notice states that date without specifying a cutoff time or timezone, so file well ahead of it rather than relying on a late-evening submission.Two earlier deadlines fall on the same day as each other and nearly two months before the claim deadline. To exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, your request must be postmarked no later than October 22, 2026. To object to the settlement, the plan of allocation, or the requested fees, expenses or service awards, your objection is due October 22, 2026 as well. Excluding yourself and filing a claim are mutually exclusive: if you opt out, you may not submit a Claim Form.
How Do You File?
File through the official settlement website at Kroger Savings Club Settlement. The portal starts by asking whether you have a Notice ID and Confirmation Code, and branches from there — one path for claimants who received a notice, another for people who did not receive one but believe they qualify.You will be asked for information showing you are a member of the Settlement Class and to attest to your prescription payments during the class period, plus supporting documentation where the thresholds above apply. Paper filing is available as well, and the claim form and the Plan of Allocation and Distribution are both posted on the official website's Important Documents page. Filing directly on the official site is free.
What Happens Next?
The Fairness Hearing is scheduled for January 11, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. EST before Judge Algenon L. Marbley at the United States Courthouse in Columbus, Ohio. At that hearing the Court decides whether to approve the settlement, the plan for allocating the Net Settlement Fund, Class Counsel's fee and expense request, and the requested service awards. The notice cautions that the time and date may change, and points readers to the official settlement website for current information.A hearing being held is not the same as approval being granted, and approval is not the same as payment. The notice states that the initial distribution of the Net Settlement Fund will be allocated to Settlement Class Members within 120 days after the Effective Date, which arrives only after final approval and the resolution of any appeals — and it warns that an appeal could take several years. No payment date has been announced. If the settlement is finally approved by all necessary courts, accrued interest on the fund is included in what class members are paid.
Sources
• Official Settlement Website• Official Settlement FAQs
• Settlement Agreement & Plan of Allocation (Important Documents)
• Official Long-Form Notice (PDF)
• OCA: Kroger $17M Prescription Copay Settlement (April 2026 news report)
Questions
Do I have to have been a Kroger Savings Club member to file a claim?
No. The Savings Club is what the lawsuit is about, not who is covered by it. Plaintiffs allege Kroger should have taken its Savings Club prices into account when it reported usual and customary prices, and that not doing so left insured customers paying more. The Settlement Class is defined by paying in whole or in part for one or more prescription drugs from Kroger using insurance during the class period, whether or not you ever joined the Savings Club.
Which pharmacies count as Kroger for this settlement?
The notice defines Kroger as The Kroger Co. and all pharmacies owned or operated by The Kroger Co. or any of its affiliates, which reaches beyond stores carrying the Kroger name. The full list of covered pharmacies is set out in Exhibit A to the Plan of Allocation and Distribution on the official settlement website, and that exhibit is the place to check a specific store rather than assuming from the banner on the sign.
What if I paid for my prescription in cash or with a discount card instead of insurance?
Those purchases do not put you in the Settlement Class. The class definition requires that prescription insurance benefits were used in filling the prescription and that you paid for it in whole or in part. A prescription paid entirely out of pocket, or through a discount program instead of insurance, falls outside the class.
What changes if I claim $8,000 or more?
Everyone claiming a total of $8,000 or more must submit supporting documentation or data sufficient to identify their payments to Kroger for prescription drug purchases during the class period. Below that threshold, documentation is still required from anyone the Settlement Administrator determines is not on Kroger's list of known purchasers; the administrator contacts those claimants and asks for it.
When would payments actually go out?
No payment date has been announced. The notice states that the initial distribution of the Net Settlement Fund will be allocated to Settlement Class Members within 120 days after the Effective Date, which arrives only after the Court grants final approval and any appeals are resolved. The notice also cautions that an appeal of final approval could take several years to resolve.
Official Settlement Notice
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Settlement Amount
$17,000,000
Case Title
Kirkbride et al. v. The Kroger Co.
Case Number
2:21-cv-00022
Court
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio
Final Approval Hearing
January 11, 2027 at 10:00 AM EST
Before Judge Algenon L. Marbley in Columbus, Ohio
Administrator
Angeion Group
Official Website
Kroger Savings Club Settlement.com
