High Court Sides With Wal-Mart

Talk about a massive court ruling! The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Wal-Mart in the largest sex discrimination lawsuit ever filed. The High Court ruled the suit was inappropriately given class action status.

The lawsuit involved over a million female employees of Wal-Mart, who were seeking billions of dollars in compensation for job discrimination.

The ruling overturned a U.S. court of appeals decision allowing for the class-action status. The women have accused the giant retailer of paying lower salaries and offering fewer promotion opportunities than their male counterparts.

But Wal-Mart argued that because the employees worked in 3,400 different stores and in a wide variety of jobs, there was not sufficient common ground to group them all into one class.

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and the largest private U.S. employer. The company denies the discrimination accusations.

The decision may have a major impact on similar class action suits involving Costco and the tobacco industry.