Amazon Settles Lawsuit Over Slower Deliveries and Delivery Exclusion to Black Neighborhoods in DC

From [HERE] Amazon Prime customers who experienced slower deliveries because they lived in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, which are majority-Black, will receive millions of dollars in refunds after the company settled a lawsuit brought by the District, the city attorney general’s office said Thursday.

The lawsuit accused Amazon of secretly excluding Ward 7 and Ward 8 Zip codes — 20019 and 20020 — from the company’s own branded delivery services, using third-party carriers such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service instead, which significantly slowed delivery times, despite charging the same price for Prime memberships.

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) said in a statement that the online retailer will refund $7.25 million in membership fees to about 69,000 D.C. customers, pay the District $1 million in penalties, and “reform its practices.”

“No company is above the law, no matter how big or powerful,” Schwalb said. [MORE]