On Monday, November 27, 2023, in New York, the United States, Amazon employees delivered packages on Cyber Monday.
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Washington, D.C. Attorney General files lawsuit Amazon on Wednesday accused the company of covertly depriving residents of certain postal codes in the nation’s capital of access to Prime’s high-speed delivery service.
AG Brian Schwalb alleges in the lawsuit that since 2022, Amazon has “secretly excluded” two “historically underserved” D.C. ZIP codes from its expedited delivery service while denying access to Prime members who live there. Full subscription fee is charged. Amazon’s Prime membership program costs $139 per year and includes perks such as two-day shipping and access to streaming content.
“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working District 7 and 8 residents for expedited delivery services it promised but did not deliver,” Schwalb said in a statement. “While Amazon has every right to “It has the right to make operational adjustments, but it cannot implicitly decide that a dollar in one zip code is worth less than a dollar in another zip code.”
In June 2022, Amazon allegedly stopped using its own delivery trucks to deliver packages between ZIP codes 20019 and 20020 due to concerns about driver safety, the lawsuit states. The company relies on external carriers in lieu of its internal delivery network, e.g. ups The U.S. Postal Service is responsible for the deliveries, according to the complaint filed in D.C. Superior Court.
The lawsuit alleges that this decision resulted in residents of those ZIP codes experiencing “significantly longer delivery times than their neighbors in other ZIP codes, despite paying the exact same Prime membership price.”
Before Amazon implemented the change, more than 72% of Prime packages in the two ZIP codes were delivered within two days of checkout, AG data shows. After the move, that number fell to 24%, while two-day delivery rates rose to 74% across the region.
Amazon has previously faced complaints about discrepancies in its Prime program. In 2016, the company said it would expand Same-day delivery available in cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C. Bloomberg survey found that black residents were “about half as likely as white residents” to qualify for same-day delivery.
The ZIP codes in Schwalb’s complaint are in areas with larger Black populations, according to 2022 Census data based on the American Community Survey.
The FTC also sued Amazon in June 2023, accusing the company of tricking consumers into signing up for Prime and “sabotaging” their cancellation attempts by employing so-called dark patterns, or deceptive design tactics designed to lead users to make specific choices. . Amazon said the complaint was “factually and legally false.” The case will be heard in June 2025.
According to Svalb’s complaint, Amazon never communicated the shipping exclusions to Prime members in the region. When consumers in affected ZIP codes complained to Amazon about slower delivery, the company said it was due to circumstances beyond its control, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit accuses Amazon of violating the region’s consumer protection laws. It also asked the court to “end Amazon’s deceptive practices” and seek damages and penalties.
To deliver packages to customers’ doorsteps, Amazon uses a combination of its own contracted delivery companies (often distinguished by Amazon-branded trucks) as well as carriers such as USPS, UPS and UPS. fedexand a network of gig workers who use their own vehicles to make deliveries as part of the Flex program.
Amazon has rapidly expanded its in-house logistics fleet in recent years, hoping to shorten delivery times from two days to one day or even hours. July, company explain In the first half of this year, it achieved the “fastest Prime delivery speed ever,” delivering more than 5 billion items in a day.
By relying on its own workforce, Amazon has greater control over its delivery operations.
Schwalb’s complaint cited an internal company policy that says Amazon may choose to exclude certain areas from its internal delivery network if drivers experience “violence, intimidation or harassment.” The company relies on UPS or USPS to deliver packages in excluded areas.
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