Amazon Deceived Black D.C. Neighborhoods With Slower Deliveries, City Alleges
Washington, D.C.'s attorney general has sued the retail giant for charging residents of two zip codes the same Prime price for significantly slower delivery speeds.
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Amazon Deceived Black D.C. Neighborhoods With Slower Deliveries, City Alleges
Washington, D.C.'s attorney general has sued the retail giant for charging residents of two zip codes the same Prime price for significantly slower delivery speeds.
By Todd Feathers Published December 4, 2024 | Comments (36)
Amazon tricked customers in two predominantly Black zip codes in Washington, D.C. into paying for its faster Prime delivery service while actually outsourcing deliveries to slower providers, according to a new lawsuit filed by the district’s attorney general.
The suit accuses Amazon of making a secret internal decision in June 2022 to stop delivering to the zip codes 20019 and 20020, both east of the Anacostia River, using its Amazon branded trucks. Instead, the company began using slower services like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service to bring packages to those neighborhoods, which are 89 and 90 percent Black, respectively, according to census data.
Meanwhile, the company continued to advertise and promote its faster delivery times to the roughly 48,000 Prime members in those zip codes, according to the complaint.
“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,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement. “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. We’re suing to stop this deceptive conduct and make sure District residents get what they’re paying for.”
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said accusations that the slower delivery times in 20019 and 20020 are discriminatory or deceptive are “categorically false”. Instead, she wrote in an emailed statement, that slower times were caused by violence against drivers in those neighborhoods and suggested that Schwalb’s office should work to reduce crime and improve safety in the areas.
“In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages,” Nantel wrote. “We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.”
Prime customers in zip codes 20019 and 20020 received more than 72 percent of their packages within two days in 2021, according to the lawsuit. Amazon allegedly decided to exclude the zip codes from faster shipping in mid-2022. By 2023, only 25 percent of packages were delivered within two days in 20019 and 24 percent were delivered within two days in 20020.
Meanwhile, the percent of packages Amazon delivered to Prime customers across all of Washington, D.C. increased from less than 60 percent to more than 74 percent, according to the lawsuit.
D.C. residents have been calling out the retail giant’s allegedly discriminatory policies for years. The new lawsuit includes exchanges between Prime customers and the company’s official social media accounts, including one in which a customer asks Amazon to explain why it takes them a week to receive a package in 20020 but they receive same-day delivery of the package at an address that’s only three minutes away in a neighboring zip code.
The @AmazonHelp X account replied that the delays are “never on purpose or out of malice.”
“Really? So it has nothing to do with the racial/socioeconomic divide that just so happens to coincide with your delivery divide?” the customer responded.
Never had any issues with Amazon delivering my packages 
