The District of Columbia sued Amazon on Wednesday, alleging the company secretly stopped providing its fastest delivery service to residents of two predominantly Black neighborhoods while still charging millions of dollars for a membership that promises the benefit.
The complaint filed in District of Columbia Superior Court revolves around Amazon’s Prime membership, which costs consumers $139 per year or $14.99 per month for fast deliveries — including one-day, two-day and same-day shipments — along with other enhancements.
In mid-2022, the lawsuit alleges, the Seattle-based online retailer imposed what it called a delivery “exclusion” on two low-income 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.
They mention targeted attacks against drivers in these zip codes. If it’s really about race, why stop at those 2?
Not that they should hold out on their promise to subscribers but I don’t buy the race angle
Why would slower deliveries stop targeted attacks?
I may have read it wrong but my understanding was Amazon pulled back their own drivers from those zipcodes and delegated their packages to other carriers
Yeah, I didn’t read and I should have.
They had attacks on their drivers.
DC wants them to warn customers that that can’t get the full service depending on zip but imagine what the next headline reads. Probably something like: “Amazon’s racist policy disproportionately excludes black zip codes from Prime delivery service”.
Fucked if they do, fucked if they don’t.
Did they refund the Prime subscription of these residents, or otherwise make up for unfulfilled promises?
They’d certainly be less fucked if they stopped stealing from their minority customers.
True. And they should.
Doesn’t change the next headline. “Amazon refuses to sell Prime delivery to black people”.
If only there was something a multibillion dollar company could do to improve the situation… nothing?
