An Eastern District of Texas suit filed on Wednesday says that Amazon.com Inc. discriminates against Asian-American and white “delivery service partners” by offering “Black, Latinx, and Native American entrepreneurs” a $10,000 stipend to launch their parcel delivery businesses. The suit says that the plaintiff, a white Texas woman, wanted to partner with the company, but won’t until Amazon either offers the benefit to everyone or eliminates it entirely.
Amazon contracts with “delivery service partners” to bring packages to its customers, the complaint explains. At an unspecified date, it announced a “Diversity Grant” of $1 million to help with start-up costs of delivery businesses and “reduce the barriers to entry” for certain racial groups. The upshot, the complaint says, is that people who fall outside the criteria and who wish to become delivery service partners “receive no such stipend and must foot the entire bill for their start-up costs.”
The class action notes that the contested grant is not the first instance of alleged unlawful racial discrimination at Amazon, pointing to its “Black Business Accelerator” program, online since June 2021. “Amazon uses this program to engage in unlawful racial discrimination against non-[B]lack owned business and in favor of [B]lack-owned businesses that sell products through Amazon,” the complaint says, pointing to a $500 credit Amazon gives to Black-owned businesses only.
The filing claims the plaintiff has suffered injury “because she cannot apply to become an Amazon delivery service partner without subjecting herself to racial discrimination.” The suit seeks to represent a class of “all past and future applicants to Amazon’s ‘delivery service partners’ program who have been subjected to racial discrimination” and requests damages and prospective relief.
The plaintiff is represented by Mitchell Law PLLC, Lawfair LLC, and America First Legal Foundation.
Another case against Amazon arguing that it unfairly favors certain groups based on protected criteria such as race, sexual orientation, and gender is ongoing in San Diego, Calif. There, Amazon opposed the complaint arguing that its diversity and inclusion programs are not discriminatory and that the would-be seller suffered no harm as he did not actually sell anything on Amazon’s marketplace.
