WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A jury has ordered that Walmart must pay $19.3 million to K2 Distribution, a company that formed a hand sanitizer distribution deal with Walmart during the pandemic.

In a complaint filed on Oct. 8, 2021, legal representatives for K2 Distribution detailed the extent to which Walmart allegedly reneged on the deal.

K2 Distribution says that during the first wave of the pandemic it made a deal with Walmart to provide the company with “a reputable, reliable, fixed-price, long-term supply of hand sanitizer” for customers and employees.

“K2 Distribution spent more than $35 million to perform its obligations, delivering thousands of custom-designed dispensers and cases of sanitizer for Walmart’s use and contracting for hundreds of thousands of additional gallons,” the complaint said.

The complaint goes on to say that Walmart went back on the deal and refused to pay.

“For reasons that had nothing to do with K2 Distribution’s performance of its obligations, Walmart kept and refused to pay K2 Distribution anything for 44,000 dispensers, canceled all in-process orders in August 2020, and thereafter declined to purchase any additional sanitizer from K2 Distribution. Adding insult to injury, Walmart falsely asserted in bad faith that it had never made any agreement with K2 Distribution in the first place,” the complaint said.

Walmart says that it disagrees with the verdict.

“We value our supplier relationships and disagree with the verdict,” a spokesperson for Walmart said. “We continue to believe our business dealings with K2 were appropriate, and we are reviewing our options, including the filing of post-trial motions.”