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Amazon sued for embezzling tips from delivery people in the United States

2022-12-07T22:39:59.094Z


The delivery giant reportedly used tips left by customers to pay off money it already owed to its delivery people.


Recover part of the tips from the delivery people to pay the sums due to these same delivery people.

A nice sleight of hand that is worth legal action to Amazon.

The Washington city prosecutor has filed a complaint against the e-commerce giant, which he accuses of having embezzled sums intended for independent delivery people, according to a press release from the magistrate published on Wednesday.

Amazon is accused of having used these tips to pay part of what it owed these delivery people.

The company has already agreed in 2021 to pay $ 62 million to delivery people to put an end to lawsuits from the American consumer protection agency (FTC) on these same facts.

But Washington prosecutor Karl Racine wants a fine to be imposed on the group and a court decision to permanently ban the company from resorting to this practice.

A lie to customers?

Amazon introduced a program called “Amazon Flex” in 2015, which encouraged customers to tip delivery people as soon as they placed their order.

However, the company changed the payment system for these delivery people in 2016, leading to a large part of the tips not being paid directly to the delivery people but to financing part of the amount owed by Amazon.

At the same time, she continued to assure customers that 100% of tips were going into the pockets of delivery people.

“And instead of notifying drivers of changes to its tipping system, Amazon changed the way tips were displayed in the app so that delivery people could no longer see the amount paid by each customer,” he said. he added in the release.

Even if Amazon has reimbursed the sums unduly deducted, the group "has so far escaped any liability, including any fine, for the damage caused to consumers", underlines the Washington prosecutor's office to justify the complaint filed. tuesday.

This complaint "concerns a practice that we changed three years ago", reacted an Amazon spokeswoman in a message to AFP, considering that the procedure was "unfounded".

The agreement with the FTC in 2021 also required the group to seek permission from delivery people before making any changes to its tip management, an obligation that runs until 2041.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2022-12-07

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