DC lawsuit says Amazon secretly stopped fast deliveries to 2 predominantly Black zip codes
The District of Columbia is alleging in a lawsuit that Amazon secretly stopped providing its fastest delivery service to residents who live in two predominantly Black neighborhoods in the city
The District of Columbia is suing Amazon, saying the company secretly stopped providing its fastest delivery service to residents who live in two predominantly Black Washington neighborhoods but is still charging residents millions of dollars for a service that provides speedy deliveries.
The complaint, filed Wednesday in District of Columbia Superior Court, revolves around Amazon’s Prime membership service, which charges consumers $139 per year or $14.99 per month for fast deliveries — including one-day, two-day and same-day shipments — as well as other benefits.
In mid-2022, the lawsuit says, the Seattle-based online retailer imposed what it called a delivery “exclusion” on two zip codes in the district — 20019 and 20020 — and began relying exclusively on third-party delivery services such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, rather than its own delivery systems.
Amazon claims to have made the change based on concerns about driver safety, the lawsuit notes.
However, the District of Columbia's attorney general’s office said the company never told Prime members in the two zip codes about the change even though they experienced slower deliveries as a result. Amazon also did not tell new customers about the exclusions when they signed up for Prime memberships, the lawsuit says.
“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement, referencing the two areas in the
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