“Workers in the District of Columbia and throughout our country are too often taken advantage of and not paid their hard-earned wages,” Racine stated in a assertion. “What’s more, consumers need to know where their tips are going. This suit is about providing workers the tips they are owed and telling consumers the truth. Amazon, one of the world’s wealthiest companies, certainly does not need to take tips that belong to workers.”
The lawsuit considerations Amazon Flex, a service launched in 2015 that provides fast deliveries. When it was launched, the corporate inspired customers to tip supply drivers and warranted that one hundred pc of the tip would go to the drivers.
According to the lawsuit, in 2016, Amazon modified the mannequin so drivers might not see the tip quantities from every supply, and a big portion of the guidelines had been as a substitute used to pay wages already promised to the drivers. The lawsuit additional alleges that the corporate deceived customers and staff concerning the mannequin by hiding the fact of the tip coverage.
An Amazon spokesperson stated in an e-mail that the lawsuit was with out benefit, including that the corporate had modified its mannequin in 2019 and that it had a compensation framework that ensures D.C. drivers earn greater than the District’s minimal wage.
In 2021, Amazon reimbursed the Amazon Flex drivers as a part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and agreed to a nationwide injunction that prohibits the corporate from altering the best way driver ideas are dealt with with out notifying drivers prematurely.
“Nothing is more important to us than customer trust. This lawsuit involves a practice we changed three years ago and is without merit — all of the customer tips at issue were already paid to drivers as part of a settlement last year with the FTC,” Amazon spokeswoman Maria Boschetti stated in an announcement Wednesday.
Racine argued that the corporate has not but been held accountable for “consumer harm” violations of D.C.’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA), which prohibits misleading and unfair enterprise practices, comparable to deceptive customers.
The legal professional normal’s workplace is in search of civil penalties for every violation of the CPPA, cost to the District for prices of the case and a court docket order to make sure that the corporate can’t have interaction within the observe once more.
This is the second lawsuit Racine has filed towards the trade big. In 2021, his workplace filed an antitrust grievance towards the corporate, alleging that Amazon held monopoly energy that resulted in increased costs for customers. A D.C. Superior Court choose dismissed the antitrust go well with earlier this yr.
In April, the OAG and the U.S. Department of Justice each urged the court docket to rethink its dismissal of the antitrust lawsuit towards Amazon. Then in August, the Office of the Attorney General filed a discover of attraction. The metropolis and Amazon should submit their arguments to D.C. Court of Appeals by the top of January earlier than the case strikes ahead.