New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Danvenport filed the state’s fourth open lawsuit against Amazon on Tuesday, accusing the tech giant of creating worse work conditions for lower pay through its “anti-competitive” delivery driver network.
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“Today, my office is acting to stand up for thousands of New Jersey delivery drivers who are being exploited every day by one of the world’s biggest, richest corporations,” Davenport said at a news conference.
The suit homes in on Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners (DSPs) program, which the company advertises as an opportunity for prospective entrepreneurs to open their own business while partnering with the tech giant by managing a local system of drivers. But these businesses are beholden to Amazon, Davenport argues, and the tech giant’s system prevents drivers from unionizing or getting better work conditions.
“These are the workers who bring Amazon packages to our front doors,” she said. “They often show up in Amazon vans, wearing Amazon vests, carrying boxes with the Amazon logo on them. And in our view, they are working longer hours in worse conditions and for less money because of Amazon’s anti-competitive behavior.”
These drivers earn “significantly less” than drivers for UPS, FedEx, and the United States Postal Service, according to the complaint.
The complaint describes a work environment of employee surveillance, union busting, and drivers having no choice but to pee in waters bottles to meet Amazon’s metrics.
“They must accept invasive surveillance that monitors their every moment and action while at work and face the possibility of immediate termination for the smallest infraction or failure to meet these unreasonable requirements,” the complaint states.
On its website, Amazon advertises the DSP program as providing “the unique opportunity to create jobs in your neighborhood and lead a team that delivers gifts, textbooks, and pet food to your community.”
But Davenport’s office argues that the DSPs “are anything but independent.”
“Rather, Amazon keeps control of the levers that matter — setting demanding operational requirements, monitoring driver performance, controlling route allocations, and restricting DSPs from hiring one another’s drivers—with exploitative consequences for the drivers themselves,“ her office said in a release.
She also alleges that Amazon monitors DSP workers with AI and cameras inside the vehicles they’re driving, and that the company has intimidated and retaliated against drivers who were suspected of union organizing.
The complaint cites an incident in Queens in which Amazon allegedly sent drones to blacklist striking workers. It also cites an instance in Edison where workers were allegedly told that labor organizing could endanger DSP’s partnership with Amazon, putting their jobs in jeopardy.
The suit claims also accuses Amazon of blacklisting workers who support unionization from a broad network of DSPs, and cites workers who were terminated after their bosses learned they supported labor organizing.
Amazon is the dominant purchaser of this delivery driver labor, and since it’s about buying rather than selling, their alleged anti-competitive practice is called a monopsony, rather than a monopoly. Davenport’s office said this is the first time a state has filed a monopsony complaint.
It adds to a list of court battles with the company.
In September 2023, former Attorney General Matthew Platkin joined the Federal Trade Commission and other states in suing the tech giant for maintaining a monopoly. Last October, Platkin filed one complaint over the company’s treatment of pregnant people and workers with disabilities, and another over how Amazon classifies certain workers as independent contractors and therefore denying them rights and benefits.
Davenport’s lawsuit Tuesday is the first lawsuit against Amazon filed under Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration, but the state’s top lawyer said the three other cases are ongoing.
The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and alleges violation of the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and New Jersey’s Antitrust Act and seeks damages for DSP drivers and for Amazon to stop the alleged behavior.
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