On Wednesday, the District of Columbia initiated legal action against Amazon, claiming that the corporation covertly ceased to offer its swiftest delivery options to residents of two predominantly African American neighborhoods, despite continuing to charge for a membership that includes this benefit.

The lawsuit, lodged in the District of Columbia Superior Court, focuses on Amazon's Prime subscription, which entails an annual fee of $139 or a monthly charge of $14.99 for expedited shipping services, including one-day, two-day, and same-day deliveries, in addition to other perks.

In mid-2022, the lawsuit alleges that the Seattle-based e-commerce giant unilaterally applied a delivery "exclusion" to two low-income postal codes in the district—20019 and 20020—and shifted to relying solely on third-party delivery entities such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, rather than its own delivery infrastructure. Amazon has stated that this decision was prompted by concerns regarding the safety of its drivers.

"There have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages" in the two postal codes, and the company made the change to "prioritize the safety of delivery drivers," according to a prepared statement from Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel. "We deliberately adjusted our operations, including delivery routes and times, solely to protect the safety of our drivers," Nantel emphasized. "The allegations by the attorney general that our business practices are discriminatory or deceptive are unequivocally false."

The District of Columbia's attorney general's office asserts that Amazon failed to inform Prime members in the affected postal codes about this change, despite the resulting slower delivery times. The lawsuit also alleges that Amazon did not disclose these exclusions to new customers when they signed up for Prime memberships. "Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working residents of Wards 7 and 8 for an expedited delivery service it promises but fails to deliver," stated District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, referring to the two areas within the city where Amazon is accused of withholding its fastest delivery services. "While Amazon has every right to make operational adjustments, it cannot secretly decide that a dollar in one postal code is worth less than a dollar in another," Schwalb remarked.

The lawsuit indicates that Amazon has nearly 50,000 Prime members residing in the two postal codes, a figure that accounts for nearly half of the local population. Members in these neighborhoods have ordered over 4.5 million packages in the past four years and are more reliant on Amazon due to a scarcity of nearby services and retail outlets, according to the city. The area is also infamously known as a food desert. The district claims that in 2021, prior to Amazon's implementation of its delivery "exclusion," more than 72% of Prime packages in the impacted postal codes were delivered within two days. However, last year, this figure dropped to only 24%, as per the complaint. In contrast, the lawsuit states that Prime members living in other parts of the city received two-day deliveries 75% of the time. Concurrently, Amazon was enhancing its delivery speeds across the nation.

When some customers in the city complained about the slower deliveries, Amazon concealed the true reason for the delays and "deceptively implied" that the delays "were simply due to natural fluctuations in shipping circumstances, rather than a deliberate decision by Amazon," the lawsuit alleges. District officials are requesting the court to issue an injunction preventing Amazon from "engaging in unfair or deceptive practices." They also seek restitution or damages for the affected Prime members, as well as civil penalties.

This is not the first instance where Amazon has been accused of providing slower deliveries to areas where the majority of households are African American. In 2016, American news outlet Bloomberg published an investigation stating that African American residents of cities such as Atlanta and Chicago were approximately half as likely as white residents to live in neighborhoods with access to Amazon's same-day delivery service. Local news website DCist reported a year later that Amazon's restaurant delivery service—which the company ceased five years ago—had excluded some neighborhoods in Washington, including one of the postal codes mentioned in the district's lawsuit.

Nantel stated that Amazon is "always transparent" with its customers "during the shopping journey and checkout process about when, exactly, they can expect their orders to arrive." Since 2022, nearly 1.5 million Prime-eligible products were delivered in two days or less to Prime customers residing in the two postal codes, the company claimed. "What we'd like to do, and have offered, is to collaborate with the attorney general and their office to reduce crime and improve safety in these areas," Nantel said.

"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." The complaint filed on Wednesday represents the second significant legal dispute between Amazon and the District of Columbia, which also filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company.