Northeast Grocery - 401(k) Plans Class Action Settlement

Retirement Plans · Pending — Automatic Payment

Current Status

Payment is automatic; there is no claim form. The court granted preliminary approval on August 5, 2026. The deadline to object is November 17, 2026, and the final approval hearing is scheduled for December 1, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. in Utica. No payment date had been announced as of September 27, 2026.

What Changed Recently?

Northeast Grocery, the parent of Tops Markets and Price Chopper/Market 32, and its 401(k) administrative committee agreed on July 20, 2026, to pay $225,000 to settle Collins v. Northeast Grocery, Inc., No. 5:24-cv-00080, a proposed class action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. The court preliminarily approved the deal on August 5, 2026, and administrator Analytics Consulting has launched the official settlement website.

The suit, filed in January 2024 by plan participants, alleged the plans’ fiduciaries violated ERISA by failing to monitor fees, share classes, investment managers and recordkeeping costs, and by engaging in prohibited transactions. The court dismissed the case in August 2024; in August 2025 the Second Circuit upheld most of that dismissal but revived two claims, a prohibited-transaction claim and a breach-by-omission claim, after the Supreme Court’s Cunningham v. Cornell University decision. The parties settled after mediation in January 2026. The defendants deny all wrongdoing and say the plans were managed prudently.

Who Qualifies?

The settlement class covers everyone who participated at any time from January 1, 2018, through August 5, 2026, in any of these plans:

• the Northeast Grocery 401(k) Plan
• the Tops Markets, LLC 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
• the Price Chopper Associate 401(k) Plan, which was merged into the Tops plan on January 1, 2023
• the Tops Markets, LLC 401(k) Savings Plan for Union Associates

Beneficiaries of deceased participants and alternate payees under a qualified domestic relations order are included. Current and former employees are both covered, as long as the plans’ records show participation during that period.

How Much Can You Get?

The $225,000 fund is reduced before anything is paid out. Class counsel may ask for attorneys’ fees of up to one-third ($75,000) and up to $10,000 in costs. Each of the four named plaintiffs may receive a service award of up to $2,500. Administration costs and up to $15,000 for an independent fiduciary also come out of the fund. What remains is divided among class members under a court-approved plan of allocation, calculated by the administrator from the plans’ records.

No per-person estimate has been published. The administrator calculates each share from the plans’ records, in three steps:

• It adds up the class member’s account balance as of January 1, 2018, and at each December 31 after that, plus the balance through August 5, 2026. For someone who cashed out earlier, only the year-end balances while they were in the plans count. That total is the member’s “Balance.”
• It adds up the Balances of every class member.
• Each member receives the same fraction of the net fund that their Balance is of the total.

Larger and longer-held accounts therefore receive more. Because the fund is small and is shared across four plans over more than eight years, many payments are likely to be modest, and the notice states that not every class member will receive one. Anyone whose share works out to less than $25 is not paid; that money is reallocated until the smallest payment is $25. Money from checks that go uncashed is paid back to the plans to offset participants’ administrative fees.

What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?

None. Class members are identified from the plans’ recordkeeping data, and there is no claim form, notice ID or documentation to submit. Notice goes out by email to current participants with a personal email on file and by first-class mail to everyone else.