Amazon sues over slow delivery to low-income US areas

New York:

The District of Columbia attorney general sued Amazon, accusing it of violating consumer protection laws by delaying deliveries to Prime members in historically low-income neighborhoods.

In one of the first such complaints filed in the District of Columbia Supreme Court, Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said Wednesday that Amazon intentionally and secretly shut down its fastest delivery service for about 50,000 Prime customers. Xinhua News Agency reports that the ZIP codes were low-income neighborhoods.

According to the lawsuit, Amazon has used third parties such as United Parcel Service and the Postal Service to deliver Prime in the region for the past two years. This has resulted in slower deliveries than Amazon’s delivery drivers serving other Washington residents.

Amazon “can’t secretly decide that a dollar in one ZIP code is worth less than a dollar in another,” Schwalb said in a statement. “We are suing to stop this deceptive practice and we want to make sure that district residents get what they are paying for.”

“The lawsuit adds to growing regulatory scrutiny over Amazon’s behavior toward customers,” the New York Times said in its report on the situation. The District of Columbia sued the company for alleged price fixing in 2021, a case that an appeals court revived in August. In a lawsuit filed last year, the Federal Trade Commission accused Amazon of illegally maintaining an online retail monopoly by pressuring merchants and favoring its own services.