Washington, D.C.'s Attorney General Brian Schwalb is suing Amazon for allegedly excluding certain predominantly Black zip codes from speedy Prime delivery. According to the lawsuit, Amazon relied on UPS and USPS carriers to make deliveries to these neighborhoods, which resulted in longer delivery times.
Schwalb claims that beginning in 2022, Amazon stopped using its in-house delivery systems for Ward 7 (83% Black) and Ward 8 (82% Black), while still charging those customers the same amount for a Prime subscription — even though only 24% of packages to these Wards were delivered within two days. Schwalb also alleges that Amazon didn't notify any of these customers about the changes.
The lawsuit says Amazon has nearly 50,000 Prime members who live in the two areas, who have collectively ordered more than 4.5M packages in the past four years and are more likely to rely on Amazon since they have fewer services and retail stores nearby.
Schwalb said in a statement, “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. 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.”
Amazon responded with the following statement:
“The claims made by the Attorney General, that our business practices are somehow discriminatory or deceptive, are categorically false. We want to be able to deliver as fast as we possibly can to every zip code across the country, however, at the same time we must put the safety of delivery drivers first. In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages. We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers. And we’re always transparent with customers during the shopping journey and checkout process about when, exactly, they can expect their orders to arrive. What we’d like to do, and have offered, is to work together with the Attorney General and their office in an effort to reduce crime and improve safety in these areas. Nevertheless, we will proceed in the process and demonstrate that providing fast and accurate delivery times and prioritizing the safety of customers and delivery partners are not mutually exclusive.”
This isn't the first time Amazon has been called out for excluding majority Black neighborhoods from fast Prime delivery. A 2016 report in Bloomberg indicated that the practice was common in several metropolitan areas. Amazon has since followed up by expanding its same-day delivery to many of the neighborhoods mentioned in the report.
I've got to agree with Amazon about one thing — this doesn't sound like discrimination against predominantly Black neighborhoods. This sounds like discrimination against predominantly dangerous neighborhoods. Would Amazon have taken a similar course of action if the neighborhoods were predominantly White or Latino? Likely, so. The company is under no obligation to put their drivers in danger, regardless of neighborhood demographics.
However I've got to agree with Brian Schwalb about one thing — Amazon should have informed its customers. Advertising two-day or faster delivery times and then only delivering on that promise 24% of the time is blatant false advertisement, and Amazon should settle up on the matter. From there it can come up with more transparent practices regarding communicating delivery times to high danger areas in which they choose to not operate their delivery vehicles, and it'll be up to the residents to decide whether they'd like to purchase Amazon Prime memberships given the extended delivery times.
The issue of false advertising two-day delivery goes beyond dangerous neighborhoods. There are many rural areas as well in which Amazon relies on last-mile delivery partners, which results in packages not arriving within two days to Prime members. If customers were able to view statistics about average delivery times for their zip code prior to subscribing to Prime, then this whole thing would be a non-issue in my opinion.