New York: E-commerce giant Amazon is in trouble for allegedly inferior service to customers in lower-income places in the US.
The attorney general of Columbia district has sued Amazon, accusing the company of violating consumer protection laws by making slower deliveries to Prime members in historically lower-income neighbourhoods, reported IANS.
In a first-of-its-kind complaint, filed with the Superior Court of District of Columbia, attorney general Brian L Schwalb stated on Wednesday that Amazon had deliberately and secretly stopped its fastest delivery service to the nearly 50,000 Prime subscribers in certain ZIP codes that were lower-income neighbourhoods, reports Xinhua news agency.
The lawsuit says Amazon has been using third parties like United Parcel Service and Postal Service to make Prime deliveries in those areas for the last two years. As a result, the deliveries took longer than those made by Amazon’s own delivery drivers, who serve other Washington residents.
“Amazon 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,” Schwalb said in a statement.
The New York Times reported that the lawsuit adds to growing regulatory scrutiny of Amazon’s treatment of customers.
In 2021, Columbia district had sued the company Amazon over price-fixing allegations, a case that was revived by an appeals court in August.
In a suit filed last year, the Federal Trade Commission accused Amazon of illegally protecting a monopoly over swaths of online retail by squeezing merchants and favouring its own services.
