The District of Columbia recently announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the giant tech company Amazon, claiming that the company halted its fast delivery to members living in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
Per the lawsuit, Amazon failed to deliver to two specific ZIP codes- 20019 and 20020- despite charging members for Amazon Prime. The cost of Amazon Prime ranges from $14.99 per month to $139 for a year-long membership.
Although the members paid for the plan, the tech retail company imposed a “delivery exclusion” when it came to those two areas, using UPS and the U.S. Postal Service while charging members tens of thousands of dollars. Amazon alleges that the decision was made based on concerns about the safety of the drivers.
Members living in those two neighborhoods were never informed about the changes, even as they dealt with slower delivery times. Along with the almost 50,000 existing Prime members, Amazon also did not alert newer members about their standards in the neighborhood.
When customers contacted the company about slower deliveries, the company claimed that the slower deliveries were due to “shipping circumstances.” Over four years, over 4.5 million packages have been shipped to these neighborhoods; of these, in 2023 alone, only 24% of packages were delivered in two days—the standard for what they were charging customers.
Amazon is allowed to make operational changes to its business, and it says it did this to protect its employees.
— AG Brian Schwalb (@DCAttorneyGen) December 4, 2024
But Amazon has no right to deceive thousands of DC residents who are now paying full Prime rates for worse service.
In doing so, it broke DC consumer protection law.
“While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one ZIP code is worth less than a dollar in another,” said District of Columbia Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb. “We’re suing to stop this deceptive conduct and make sure District residents get what they’re paying for.”
The latest lawsuit builds on previous claims which alleged that Amazon bypasses ZIP codes that are located in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
In 2016, a Bloomberg analysis found that predominantly Black neighborhoods in Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Washington D.C., Boston and Atlanta were less likely to receive packages from same-day services. Chicago’s South Side and NYC’s Bronx neighborhoods were amongst those impacted.
Although it was not deemed that the exclusion was a result of racism, the lack of access signifies the impact of systemic racism nonetheless, according to chair of the Department of Business Administration at Morehouse College Keith Hollingsworth per USA Today.
As of now, it is unknown what algorithm Amazon uses to map out which neighborhoods get same-day services.
