Amazon agrees to $8.25M settlement over slowed Prime deliveries

By Top Class Actions | October 8, 2026

Category: Consumer News

(Photo Credit: Fabio Principe/Shutterstock)

Amazon settlement overview:

Who: Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to pay $8.25 million to resolve allegations brought by the District of Columbia over Amazon Prime delivery services.
Why: The plaintiff alleged Amazon excluded two Washington, D.C., ZIP codes from certain Prime delivery services while charging residents the full membership price.
Where: The lawsuit was filed in the District of Columbia state court.
How to file a claim: Claim-filing instructions are not yet available. Sign up for our free newsletter to receive updates when details are announced. In the meantime, browse our list of open settlements to find other claims you may qualify for.

Amazon has agreed to pay $8.25 million to resolve allegations that it secretly excluded customers in two Washington, D.C., ZIP codes from certain expedited Amazon Prime delivery services while continuing to charge them the full Prime membership price.

Under the Amazon settlement, approximately $7.25 million will be distributed to eligible Amazon Prime customers who lived in the affected ZIP codes. Amazon will also pay $1 million to the District of Columbia.

Qualified customers will be notified about their eligibility and receive refunds in the coming weeks, according to the settlement agreement.

The dispute involves ZIP codes 20019 and 20020 in eastern Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia alleged Amazon excluded the areas from its in-house delivery network for purported safety reasons and instead relied on third-party carriers, such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, which resulted in slower delivery times.

According to the allegations, about 69,000 Amazon Prime customers in the two ZIP codes experienced materially slower deliveries than customers in other areas despite paying the same Prime membership price.

Amazon settlement requires notices about delivery exclusions

As part of the Amazon settlement, the company agreed to notify Amazon Prime customers and the District of Columbia attorney general if it imposes similar safety-based delivery exclusions in the future.

If Amazon excludes a residential ZIP code in Washington, D.C., from its in-house delivery systems because of safety concerns, existing customers in the area must be notified. Amazon must also alert prospective Prime customers who enter a billing address in an affected ZIP code when they sign up for the service. The notices must explain the exclusion and any potential effect on delivery speeds or the availability of Prime benefits, Law360 reports.

Amazon said it denied the District of Columbia’s claims and that the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing.

The company asserts that delivery decisions in the affected ZIP codes were based on documented safety threats faced by drivers and that it continued to serve customers through other carriers.

Amazon claims conditions have since improved and deliveries have returned to its delivery service partners and Amazon Flex drivers in the areas.

The Amazon settlement comes nearly two years after the District of Columbia sued Amazon over its delivery practices.

In another Amazon lawsuit, a former delivery driver alleges the company orchestrated a deliberate and unlawful scheme to suppress the wages of hundreds of thousands of delivery drivers nationwide.

What do you think about Amazon’s settlement over its Prime delivery practices in Washington, D.C.? Let us know in the comments.

The District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General is represented in-house by Meryl Grenadier, Coty Montag, Kevin Vermillion, Samantha Miyahara Hall, Andrew Mendrala, Jorge Bonilla-Lopez, Ricardo Mullings, Alicia M. Lendon and Emily Holness.

The Amazon lawsuit is District of Columbia v. Amazon.com Inc., Case No. 2024-CAB-007611, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.