The Schnucks Settlement Email Is Real. It Pays $7 Flat to Up to 900,000 Missouri Rewards Members, the Complaint's Own Example Was a Tax Overcharge of Under 30 Cents — and Claims Close November 3.

The notice went out two ways. Question 10 of the court-approved FAQ says the online claim is filed at the settlement website and that “There is a link directly in the email you received.” People who were notified by postcard instead “must have the Access Code and PIN printed on the front of the postcard notice in order to file a claim.” Both come from the administrator: Garcia v Schnuck Settlement Administrator, c/o Rust Consulting, Inc. – 9258, PO Box 2599, Faribault, MN 55021-9599, reachable at 1-877-465-4814 and info@SchnucksTaxSettlement.com. The only website is SchnucksTaxSettlement.com.

The test that works for any settlement email works here. A genuine claim asks for your name, your contact details and how you want the $7 paid — Question 7 says “you will be asked to choose your preferred payment method.” It does not ask for a payment card to “release” the money, a Social Security number, or a login. If a message asks for any of those, or points somewhere other than the address above, it did not come from Rust Consulting. Filing is free, and you can ignore the link in the email entirely and type the site address yourself.

One more sign of a real notice is that it tells you what happens if you do nothing. Question 13: “If you do nothing and do not submit a Claim Form, you will not receive any money. However, if you are a Settlement Class Member, you will still be bound by the Court's decisions, and you will give up your right to sue Schnucks about the claims in this lawsuit.”

Sharon Garcia of University City filed the case on May 2, 2025; the class period opens exactly five years earlier, on May 2, 2020. The details of her receipt come from Legal Newsline's report on the complaint: on March 30, 2025, at the Ladue store, she redeemed $3.00 in Rewards Points and “was charged sales tax at rates of 9.488 percent and 6.100 percent on the full $58.31 retail total before her discount was applied.” Her theory is that a rewards discount is a retailer-funded price cut that Missouri excludes from the taxable base, so tax on the pre-discount total is tax on money she never spent. The complaint calls the practice double taxation: the points were earned on purchases that had already been taxed at full price.

The Missouri rule the argument leans on is 12 CSR 10-103.555, “Determining Taxable Gross Receipts.” Its coupon language reads: “The value of a store coupon issued and redeemed by a seller is not subject to tax. Store coupons are not included in gross receipts.” Manufacturer coupons reach the same result by a different route — “only the price paid by the purchaser is included in the gross receipts subject to tax” — while rebates do not reduce taxable sales “unless they are offered instantly at the time of sale.” Whether loyalty points redeemed at the register are a store coupon in that sense is the question the case would have litigated. It will not be litigated now: “The Court has not decided in favor of the Plaintiffs or Schnucks.”

Schnucks' position, in the notice: it “denies it has any liability to Plaintiff or the proposed Class Members based on the claims in the lawsuit.” In a statement quoted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the company said it did not keep the disputed tax but remitted it in full to the Missouri Department of Revenue and is “updating our tax calculation methodology to ensure ongoing compliance.” Under the settlement, “No later than March 31, 2027, Schnucks will modify its POS system to ensure Rewards Points redemptions are correctly treated as a pre-tax discount.”

Now the arithmetic the headline refers to, which is ours and not the court's. Tax on a $3.00 discount at 9.488 percent is 28 cents; at 6.100 percent it is 18 cents. The complaint's own example — the one transaction it describes — is an alleged overcharge of between 18 and 28 cents, depending on which items the points reduced. The settlement pays $7. For a shopper who redeemed points on most weekly trips for six years the overcharge could run to tens of dollars; for someone who redeemed once, $7 is many times the harm alleged. The notice does not tier the payment by how much you redeemed, and it does not ask.

There is no settlement fund. Question 7: “Schnucks will pay $7.00 to each Class Member who submits a timely and valid Claim Form.” The amount does not shrink if many people file and does not grow if few do. The “up to $6.3 million” in the Post-Dispatch's headline matches 900,000 members multiplied by $7 — our arithmetic from the notice's two inputs, and what Schnucks would owe if every eligible person claimed. In practice, consumer claim rates are far lower, and the notice makes no prediction.

Fees and awards sit outside that figure. Question 20 says class counsel — Daniel J. Orlowsky of Orlowsky Law and Adam M. Goffstein of Goffstein Law, both in St. Louis — “have not been paid anything to date for their work in this case” and “will request attorneys' fees and costs in an amount up to $1,980,000,” which the Post-Dispatch reports would come from Schnucks under the agreement. Question 21 adds “a special service award of $7,000 for the Class Representative.” Neither request reduces anyone's $7.

Uncashed money does not go back to the grocer. Question 8: “If there are any uncashed payments, those funds will be distributed to ArchCity Defenders, or another non-profit organization. No unclaimed Settlement Payments will revert to Schnucks under any circumstances.”

Two limits are easy to miss. The class covers Missouri stores only — Schnucks' Illinois and Indiana locations are outside the case, whatever their registers did. And the class period ends August 7, 2026, while the register fix is due by March 31, 2027; a redemption in between is covered by neither the settlement nor, yet, the corrected system. The notice does not address that gap, so we simply note it.

November 3, 2026 is one date carrying three deadlines. Claims filed online must be in by 11:59 p.m. Central Time; paper claims must be postmarked by that day and mailed to the Rust Consulting address above. Requests for exclusion must also be postmarked by November 3, with your name, mailing address, the phone number and email tied to your Rewards account, a statement that you want out of Garcia v. Schnuck Market, Inc., and your personal signature. Objections are letters postmarked by November 3 to three places at once: the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Division 2, 105 South Central Avenue, Clayton, MO 63105; class counsel at 7777 Bonhomme, Suite 1910, St. Louis, MO 63105; and Schnucks' counsel, Adam Simon of Dowd Bennett LLP, 7676 Forsyth Blvd., Suite 1900, St. Louis, MO 63105.

The final approval hearing is December 4, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. in Division 2 of the St. Louis County Circuit Court Building in Clayton, “or another assigned division.” Judge Stewart will decide whether the settlement is “fair, reasonable, and adequate,” and may rule on fees and the service award at the same time. Question 9 is the honest answer on timing: payments come “after the Court grants final approval to the Settlement and any appeals are resolved.” No $7 arrives in 2026.

If a claim form is incomplete, Question 11 says the administrator “will notify you by email or mail and give you an opportunity to correct any deficiencies” — so a typo is not fatal, but a late claim is: forms after November 3 “will not be considered for payment unless both parties agree otherwise and the Court approves.” Our Rust Consulting page describes how this administrator's notices and payments usually look.