The District of Columbia has initiated a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the tech giant quietly ceased offering its quickest delivery services to residents of two predominantly Black neighborhoods while continuing to charge them millions for expedited deliveries.
The legal complaint, submitted on Wednesday to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, focuses on Amazon’s Prime membership. This service costs consumers $139 annually or $14.99 monthly, and it includes various benefits, such as one-day and two-day delivery options.
According to the lawsuit, in mid-2022, Amazon implemented what it termed a delivery “exclusion” for residents living in the 20019 and 20020 zip codes. As a result, the company began to exclusively utilize third-party delivery services, like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, rather than dispatching deliveries through its own channels.
Amazon has defended this operational change by citing driver safety concerns, as mentioned in the lawsuit.
Nonetheless, the attorney general’s office of the District of Columbia maintains that Amazon never informed Prime members about these changes. As a result, residents in the affected neighborhoods experienced slower delivery times without any notification. Even new customers signing up for Prime memberships were not made aware of these delivery exclusions, according to the complaint.
Attorney General Brian Schwalb stated, “Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hardworking Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide.” He was referring to the two areas where the company allegedly withheld its fastest shipping options.
Schwalb further remarked that while Amazon is entitled to adjust its operations, it cannot arbitrarily assign different values to services based on zip codes.
The lawsuit highlights that there are nearly 50,000 Prime members residing in the affected zip codes, which accounts for almost half of the local population. These Prime subscribers have ordered over 4.5 million packages in the last four years and are increasingly reliant on Amazon due to the lack of retail options and services in their vicinity, with the areas also known for being food deserts.
The District claims that in 2021, prior to the delivery exclusion being enforced, over 72% of Prime packages sent to these zip codes were delivered within two days. In contrast, this figure plummeted to only 24% last year.
Conversely, Prime members residing in other parts of the city enjoyed timely two-day deliveries 75% of the time.
The lawsuit asserts that when customers raised concerns about the delays, Amazon misleadingly suggested that these were simply natural variations in shipping conditions, rather than a conscious decision made by the company.
District officials are seeking a court order to prevent Amazon from continuing to engage in “unfair or deceptive practices.” Additionally, they are requesting restitution for the affected Prime members and potential civil penalties against the company.
This latest complaint marks the second significant legal confrontation between Amazon and the District, as it also previously filed an antitrust lawsuit against the corporation.