Seattle, Washington: Albertsons and Safeway Ordered to Pay $900 Million in Opioid Case

A judge in Seattle ordered Albertsons to pay Washington state $900 million on Thursday, November 5, 2026, ruling that the grocery chain helped fuel the opioid epidemic through its pharmacies. King County Superior Court Judge Janet Helson issued the judgment after a nine-week non-jury trial in a lawsuit the state attorney general filed in 2022. She found the company liable for creating a public nuisance and for violating the Washington Consumer Protection Act.

Most of the money is meant to repair the damage. Helson awarded $800 million to abate the epidemic, funding a court-supervised response, and added $100 million in civil penalties, plus the state's attorneys' fees and costs. If the abatement award is reduced or overturned on appeal, the penalties would rise to about $340 million, the amount the judge found the company would otherwise owe.

What the state showed at trial

The attorney general's office said Albertsons pharmacies dispensed more than 641 million opioid pills in Washington between 2006 and 2022, and that most of those prescriptions carried red flags that were not properly investigated. The state alleged that the pharmacies filled prescriptions for opioids more than 6.5 million times despite warning signs that the drugs could be diverted for illegal use. State lawyers argued that the company put profits over safety and overworked its pharmacists until they had little power to investigate suspicious prescriptions.

Albertsons owns and operates more than 200 pharmacies in Washington, under its Albertsons, Safeway and Haggen banners. More than 26,000 people in Washington have died of an opioid overdose since 1999, the state said, and 7,400 of those deaths came in the last three years.

The company disagrees and may appeal

Albertsons denied wrongdoing during the case. Its lawyers said the company sold legal drugs that doctors had prescribed, and that pharmacists should not second-guess a doctor's judgment without a real reason to suspect a prescription was not legitimate. After the ruling, the company said it disagrees with the decision and is reviewing it closely to consider an appeal. It said it is proud of its pharmacists and will keep supporting customers and communities across Washington through responsible pharmacy operations.

Attorney General Nick Brown called the judgment a win for the state. "This is a victory for the people of Washington," he said in a news release. "When giant corporations put profits above safety, they will be held accountable."

Washington went its own way

Washington chose not to join the $774 million nationwide settlement Albertsons announced in April to resolve most opioid cases against it. The state kept its own lawsuit running and asked the court at trial for $2.2 billion. Across the country, opioid lawsuits against drug makers, distributors and pharmacies have produced settlements worth about $58 billion in total. About 806,000 people in the United States died of an opioid overdose from 1999 to 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and overdose deaths have fallen since 2023. The attorney general's office said it has recovered more than $2 billion for state and local governments from opioid cases.