Maplebear Inc., the San Francisco company that does business as Instacart, has agreed to pay up to $5 million to resolve federal allegations that its recruitment for green card sponsorship favored foreign workers on temporary visas over U.S. workers. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the joint settlement in an October 20, 2026 press release. Instacart has not admitted wrongdoing.

The case involves the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, process, the first step for many employers sponsoring a foreign worker for permanent residence. Before the Department of Labor will certify that no qualified U.S. worker is available for a position, the employer must test the labor market by advertising the job and considering U.S. applicants under 20 C.F.R. § 656.17. According to the Justice Department, Instacart required applicants for jobs advertised through PERM to mail in paper applications, even though its standard recruitment process accepted applications electronically. The department said that requirement burdened U.S. workers and that many who did apply were not considered in a timely way. The EEOC said its own investigation turned up similar evidence.

The agencies alleged that the practice amounted to citizenship status discrimination under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1324b, and to national origin discrimination against American workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2. The government characterized the preference for visa holders as intentional. Those are the agencies’ allegations; the matter was resolved by agreement, and no court has made findings.

Under the settlement summary, Instacart will establish a fund of up to $4 million to compensate people who applied for its PERM positions, or were deterred from applying, between December 2023 and February 2026. A claims administrator will contact eligible claimants and decide eligibility for back pay and compensatory damages. The company will also pay a $1 million civil penalty to the United States. Instacart must post PERM positions on its public careers website and accept electronic applications, revise its PERM-related policies, and train personnel annually on the anti-discrimination rules. It must also appoint a monitor to oversee its PERM program and submit compliance reports. The summary does not state how long the monitoring and reporting obligations last. Workers who believe they were affected can email Instacart@eeoc.gov so the agencies can pass their information to the administrator.

An Instacart spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “we maintain that our practices complied with all applicable laws and regulations.” The spokesperson said the company was pleased to resolve the matter.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in the release that the division “will not stop fighting for U.S. workers until there is a fair playing field.” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said that discrimination based on American national origin “has no place in our economy.”

The Justice Department said the agreement is the fifteenth reached since it relaunched its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative in 2025. It said the initiative has produced more than $34 million in back pay and more than $16 million in civil penalties since its original launch. The Instacart allegations closely track those in an August 2026 settlement with OpenAI and its subsidiary Statsig. In that case, the companies agreed to a $1.2 million civil penalty and a $2 million back pay fund over allegations that they kept PERM postings off their careers site, required paper applications, and advertised the jobs on late-night radio.

For the EEOC, the release describes the Instacart deal as its fourth public settlement since 2025 involving discrimination against workers because they are American. It also says five such lawsuits are pending in federal court under Project Firewall. The Department of Labor launched that initiative in September 2025 to investigate H-1B program abuse, and the EEOC has since joined it. In November 2025, the EEOC issued technical assistance stating that favoring foreign or visa-holding workers over Americans can violate Title VII. Commentators have tracked a growing number of EEOC actions on this theory, including settlements with an agricultural employer and a Guam hospitality company, according to Today’s General Counsel.

For employers that sponsor foreign workers, the settlement is the latest sign that PERM recruitment is getting close scrutiny from two agencies at once, under both immigration and Title VII law. Steps that diverge from an employer’s normal hiring process can draw allegations of intentional discrimination, as the Instacart and OpenAI cases show. Examples include requiring paper or mailed applications, keeping postings off the company’s own careers page, or running ads in hard-to-find outlets. For employers and their employment practices liability carriers, the combination of a back pay fund, a civil penalty, and an outside monitor is worth noting. Policies commonly exclude fines and penalties, so coverage for a resolution of this kind depends on the specific policy wording.