A former Walmart business development director claims he was “abruptly terminated” after alerting the company’s e-commerce star Marc Lore to questionable practices on the discounter’s website. The allegations were all related to the third-party marketplace, and included inflated sales, overcharges to sellers, failure to process returns and classifying products incorrectly. The ex-exec, Tri Huynh, claims Walmart suppressed his complaints in order “to show meteoric growth” in its online race against Amazon.
“In its race to catch Amazon.com Inc. in online retailing, Walmart Inc. issued misleading e-commerce results and fired an executive who complained the company was breaking the law, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit.”