US regulator imposes $ 61.7 million fine on Amazon

The fine penalizes Amazon for not tipping customers who make purchases through its stores to Flex delivery drivers.

Amazon is grappling with a $ 61.7 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission, which sanctions the company for not distributing the tips received by customers who shop at its Whole Foods stores, or through the Prime Now service, with the drivers who deliver them through the Flex service. The amount of the fine will be used by FCT to compensate drivers since it amounts to the amount determined by the regulator to be “diverted” by Amazon.

At issue is a change imposed by Amazon to the remuneration policy of these drivers, who use their own vehicles to make deliveries. Amazon launched the delivery service in 2016 and at the time promised a fee of $ 18 to $ 25 an hour, plus tips.

In the same year, he decided to change the remuneration policy, lowering the payment amount to the couriers and compensating the difference with the tips paid by the customers, a practice that he maintained for two and a half years, as reported by Engadget. The company only corrected the situation in 2019, when it learned of the FCT investigation.

FCT now concludes that Amazon was not clear in communicating the change in the remuneration policy and that it did so deliberately, in addition to having actively acted to camouflage these changes. The fine was calculated based on the amount unpaid to drivers between 2016 and 2019. 

Amazon and FCT are also negotiating a set of rules that the company will have to comply within the courier remuneration policy and the commitment to always request the prior consent of these interlocutors when it intends to make changes to what is agreed.