WALMART shoppers are required by law to show their receipts or risk being detained and arrested in multiple states.

Thousands of people have taken to social media in recent times to complain about associates at stores like Walmart who ask them to show their receipts upon exiting the store.

To help shoppers understand if the practice is legal or if they have the right to refuse the request, one lawyer has clarified what Walmart’s policies are and in which states they have the right to stop consumers.

“In most states, you don’t have to show your receipt at Walmart,” according to attorney Shawn Breyer at The Hive Law firm.

“But, there are five states where it’s illegal and not showing your receipt is probable cause for shoplifting,” Breyer wrote.

Receipts can be requested and are required to be shown in these five states:

Walmart employees in other states do not have the same legal protections and can only prevent a shopper from leaving the store or call the police if they can demonstrate having probable cause that the shopper committed theft, the attorney said.

An example of probable cause would be if an associate sees a shopper approach merchandise, select something, conceal it, approach the register, and then fail to pay.

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If the employee cannot prove probable cause, they may be committing the crime of false imprisonment by detaining someone.

Some laws are based on the concept of shopkeeper’s privilege which gives Walmart employees the right to detain suspected thieves.

“But only for a reasonable length of time. Basically, long enough to investigate the suspected shoplifting,” Breyer said.

And the shopper must be a “suspected shoplifter”.

The megastore does have other ways of reacting to shoppers who do not want to show their receipts.

“Walmart can ban you from the store if you don’t cooperate,” the lawyer said.

“Walmart’s only leverage is the ability to ban you from the store.”

Walmart’s rights relating to checking receipts are related to its loss prevention strategy for combatting its massive problem with shoplifting.

They recorded over 1.5 million incidents of theft last year resulting in over $3.7 billion in losses, according to The Hive Law firm.