New Jersey’s attorney general sued Amazon under federal antitrust law on Tuesday, accusing the company of abusing its market power to suppress pay for delivery companies and their drivers that bring packages to customers’ doorsteps.
The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, claimed that Amazon abused its role as the dominant buyer in a market to control its network of delivery companies, limit their growth and micromanage nearly all aspects of their business, including the pay and working conditions of drivers.
“Amazon has too much power as a buyer of the labor of thousands of New Jerseyans who deliver packages to our doorsteps,” Jennifer Davenport, New Jersey’s attorney general, said at a news conference. “And because of that power, those workers are forced to accept lower wages and appalling conditions.”
Amazon said characterizations of the company in the lawsuit were wrong and that the contractor companies, which it calls delivery service partners, control their own destiny.
“The truth is, D.S.P.s are independent business owners who make their own decisions about hiring, fleet management and capacity planning — and they choose whether to work with other companies besides Amazon,” Steve Kelly, an Amazon spokesman, said in a statement. He said the company was confident it would prevail in court.
Amazon used to rely heavily on the U.S. Postal Service and United Parcel Service to deliver its packages. But building its own delivery network has been the heart of its efforts to offer cheaper and faster shipping. Last year, Amazon surpassed the Postal Service to become the largest parcel carrier in the United States, according to ShipMatrix, a logistics consultancy.
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