The Washington city prosecutor has filed a complaint against Amazon, which he accuses of having diverted tips intended for independent distributors, according to a press release from the magistrate published this Wednesday. The electronic commerce giant is accused of having used these tips to pay part of the sums it owed to these delivery men.
Amazon has already agreed in 2021 to return 62 million dollars to the distributors to end the demands of the US consumer protection agency (FTC) for these same facts. But Washington prosecutor Karl Racine wants the group fined and a court ruling permanently barring the company from this practice.
Drivers could no longer see tip amounts
Amazon established a program called “Amazon Flex” in 2015, which encouraged customers to tip drivers as soon as they placed their order. However, the company changed the payment system for these drivers in 2016, so that a large part of the tips were not paid directly to the drivers, but part of what was owed by Amazon was financed.
At the same time, he continued to assure customers that 100% of tips went into the pockets of the drivers. “And instead of notifying drivers about changes to its tipping system, Amazon changed the way tips were displayed in the app so that drivers could no longer see how much each customer paid,” it added in the statement.
Changes in the management of tips subject to the authorization of the distributors
Even if Amazon has reimbursed the sums wrongly deducted, the group “has so far escaped any responsibility, including any fine, for the damage caused to consumers,” underlines the Washington prosecutor’s office to justify the complaint filed this Tuesday. . This complaint “refers to a practice that we changed three years ago,” reacted an Amazon spokeswoman, considering that the procedure was “unfounded.”
The settlement with the FTC in 2021 also required the group to seek permission from drivers before making changes to its tip management, an obligation that runs through 2041.
Source: BFM TV
