Ken Wu was on his phone this past spring, scrolling through the popular Chinese social-media app RedNote, when a stranger messaged him with a proposition.
The stranger explained how Mr. Wu could make some easy money off a landmark class-action settlement. Canada’s largest grocer, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. L-T, and its parent company had agreed to pay $500-million in compensation for their role in a high-profile scheme to fix bread prices.
The settlement was the first to come out of lawsuits that were launched after the companies reported an alleged industry-wide conspiracy to the Competition Bureau in 2015, in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution. (Other grocers have denied involvement.)
