Walmart class action alleges illegal sales tax charged on Florida baby products

A Miami-Dade County woman filed a class action lawsuit on March 13, 2026, against Walmart, accusing the retail giant of charging Florida shoppers sales tax on baby and toddler products that state law has exempted from such taxes for nearly three years.

Audrey Loubaton, the plaintiff, visited a Miami Walmart store on Feb. 23, 2026 and purchased a baby and toddler product priced at $10.00. When she checked out, her receipt showed a line item reading "T = FL TAX 7.00000 on $10.00." That single charge added $0.75 to her bill, bringing the total to $10.70.

Loubaton contends that under Florida law, that $0.75 charge should never have been applied and the baby product she purchased fell squarely under the state's permanent sales tax exemption. Yet, Walmart's checkout system was set up to charge it regardless.

The lawsuit alleges that Walmart's point-of-sale system was "improperly configured to automatically calculate and apply sales tax to tax-exempt Baby and Toddler Products."

According to the complaint, this was not an isolated incident limited to a single store. The lawsuit argues that all of Walmart's approximately 340 Florida stores operated under the same improperly configured system. That includes locations operating under the brands Walmart, Sam's Club, Walmart Discount Stores and Walmart Neighborhood Markets. Because of this, the complaint says shoppers at Walmart locations throughout the entire state could have been overcharged.

Florida's baby products tax exemption

Florida law says parents do not have to pay sales tax when buying products like diapers, strollers and baby clothes. Despite that law, the complaint alleges Walmart kept charging that tax anyway, collecting money from shoppers that the company had no legal right to take.

Loubaton says she is one of potentially tens of thousands of Florida shoppers who paid sales tax they did not owe while buying baby and toddler products at a Walmart store, with hundreds of store locations in Florida operating under several different brand names.

This lawsuit has its roots in a 2022 decision by the Florida Legislature to give families financial relief on everyday baby and toddler essentials. Lawmakers first enacted a sales tax exemption for a wide range of baby and toddler products, effective July 1, 2022.

That initial exemption was designed as a temporary measure.

Florida lawmakers then made the exemption permanent. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 7063 into law, with the permanent exemption taking effect on July 1, 2023.

The governor's office said the plan would provide Florida families with an estimated $2.7 billion in annual tax relief during the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

What this means for Florida shoppers

The proposed class includes all people who were charged sales tax on exempt baby and toddler products at any Walmart store in Florida from July 1, 2023 to the present. The complaint estimates the class could include tens of thousands of consumers across the state.

The complaint asks a judge to order Walmart to reprogram its point-of-sale systems so they no longer charge sales tax on exempt baby and toddler items. The lawsuit also asks the court to require Walmart to properly train its employees about Florida's tax exemption laws going forward.

In addition to those changes, the lawsuit is seeking repayment with interest of all wrongfully charged amounts, actual damages, compensatory damages, statutory damages and penalties, punitive damages and attorneys' fees and costs.

The complaint places the aggregate amount in controversy at more than $5 million, which is just a threshold number so the actual damages sought could be significantly higher.