Costco Owes $14 Million In A Class Action Settlement (And You Don't Have To Be A Member To Get Paid)
Oops, it did it again. Costco has gotten itself in trouble once more, with yet another class-action lawsuit. This time, it's about allegedly misleading marketing emails. The famous buy-in-bulk food chain has been accused of sending emails promising limited-time promotions and great deals ending soon, when, in fact, the discounts were going to last beyond the time Costco claimed. This type of false advertising is against the law in the state of Washington, where Costco is based. The suit was filed in 2025.
Costco says it has done nothing wrong. However, the company has agreed to settle and, if the court okays it, will pay $14 million to its customers. Anyone who got one of these emails may be able to collect $500 per email received. A final hearing on October 2, 2026, will determine if the court approves the settlement.
In order to qualify to receive payment, you don't have to have a Costco membership, but you do have to have gotten a marketing email from Costco between June 2, 2021, and July 7, 2026. You must also be a resident of Washington at the time that you received the email, and you must file a claim by August 24, 2026, on the Washington Commercial Email Settlement site. Payments will be sent out following the October hearing.
Costco's rotisserie chicken has also been the target of lawsuits
This is not the only time recently that Costco has ticked off customers. A class action lawsuit came for Costco's $5 rotisserie chicken in January 2026 in the state of California. Costco sells a massive number of rotisserie chickens, despite losing money on them – the plaintiffs in the lawsuit took issue with the fact that the grocery chain advertises them as preservative-free, even though they contain sodium phosphate and carrageenan. They also argued that when these ingredients were actually listed, they were only in small print without visibility or detail.
Then, in February, rotisserie chickens were the cause of still another class-action lawsuit. In this instance, it was over claims that the chickens were chock full of salmonella and that Costco (allegedly) knew darn well that that was the case but ignored it to keep the price point down. Lisa Taylor, the plaintiff behind the case, claimed that chickens came from contaminated processing plants that had failed salmonella tests.