Bulletins

She built her business on Amazon. She’s suing because she says Amazon made it impossible.

A contractor says she set up a delivery business based on Amazon's promises of potential profit but found herself forced to rely on PPP loans to remain afloat.

Amazon delivery driver

The lawsuit against Amazon alleges that the Delivery Service Partner program is designed to mislead potential contractors about the amount of money they can make.

Image: Amazon

In May 2019, Ahaji Amos set up in a limited liability corporation to create a delivery company for Amazon packages in Durham, North Carolina. Nearly three years later, Amos is suing Amazon Logistics, alleging that the company misled her about the potential for success in the partnership and claiming that Amazon designed the program to make it nearly impossible for the LLC to be profitable or independent.


The suit, filed on Jan. 24 in the Middle District of North Carolina against Amazon Logistics, claims that Amazon relies on the federal Paycheck Protection Program loans to keep DSPs, or delivery service partners, from financial collapse. Amos' lawsuit is not the first to allege that the DSP program misrepresents payment information and is designed to set unmeetable expectations; two DSPs in Oregon sued Amazon Logistics with similar allegations in October 2021.

"Instead of paying DSPs fairly, Amazon relied on the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to keep DSPs operational, thereby using taxpayer’s money to pay for its operations. On information and belief, nearly all DSPs are currently operating at a loss due to Amazon’s control of the DSP program and rely on PPP funds to stay afloat. Amazon knows this because it performs an annual financial review of most DSPs’ accounting records," attorneys Danielle Barbour Wilson and Jesse H. Rigsby wrote for Amos in the complaint.

Amazon had advertised that any individual — but no group — could apply to become a delivery partner and make as much as $300,000 per year, as long as they set up their own LLC or similar corporation, according to the suit. So Amos created Kirk Amos LLC, paid $10,000 to Amazon Logistics to officially join the Delivery Service Partner program, hired delivery drivers and tried to make money delivering packages.

The attorneys alleged in the suit that Amazon made it nearly impossible for the company to achieve the "Fantastic Plus" delivery score that would make it profitable, refused to pay Amos when her workers worked overtime hours and refused to allow Amos to appeal when Amazon decided to discipline, retrain or fire her workers.

The suit also alleges that Amos and her delivery drivers were treated as if they were Amazon employees, required to use Amazon-branded gear, monitored for driving and delivery performance using the Amazon Flex software and disciplined as if Amazon were their employer. Despite that relationship, Amazon required that Amos pay fees for "drivers’ health insurance, Amazon-branded van insurance, dispatcher salaries, manager salaries, driver overtime pay, human resource manager/recruiter, clock in and clock out clerk, payroll processing, driver pay in excess of ten hours per day, and pay for drivers that showed up for work when Amazon canceled a route during pre-route hours," Wilson and Rigsby wrote.

In April 2021, Amazon terminated the DSP partnership with Kirk Amos LLC and claimed that the partnership was ended for three alleged breaches of contract, including "failure to pay employees timely, failure to maintain auto insurance, and failure to properly maintain vehicles," according to the suit. Barbour and Rigsby provided evidence in the suit that they claim proves that all three breaches were false, and they alleged that Amazon tried to fabricate breach of contract incidents in order to make it possible to terminate the DSP contract.

The suit accuses Amazon of breach of contract, fraud, unjust enrichment and violations of labor laws and asks for more than $25,000 in damages. Amazon and attorneys for Amos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Latest Bulletins

Mobile game revenue will decline for the first time in history this year, market research firm Newzoo now says in a revised outlook for the 2022 global games market. While the whole game industry is expected to contract by 4.3% — another first since Newzoo began tracking the market in 2007 — the company is predicting a 6.4% decline in mobile game spending on top of a 4.2% decline in console game spending.

Keep ReadingShow less

Amazon is planning to lay off thousands of employees, Protocol has learned, ahead of what the company has cautioned will be a slow holiday shopping season.

Keep ReadingShow less

Google agreed to pay $391.5 million and make changes to its user privacy controls as part of a settlement with a coalition of 40 state attorneys general. The coalition accused Google of misleading customers about location-tracking practices that informed ad targeting.

Keep ReadingShow less

FTX has filed for bankruptcy and the crypto company also announced that founder Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned as CEO.

Keep ReadingShow less

Salesforce recently updated its internal policies to make it easier for managers to terminate employees for performance issues without HR involvement, Protocol has learned, a move that comes as the software giant looks to shed as many as 2,500 jobs.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said fraud and scam reports comprise the top complaint it receives about virtual currencies — and that customers are finding little help from companies when it happens.

Keep ReadingShow less

Elon Musk sent his first email to Twitter staff late Wednesday, warning of a difficult economic road ahead and telling employees they need to be in office for a minimum of 40 hours per week. "Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message," he began, ominously.

Keep ReadingShow less

Binance isn’t buying FTX after all. The crypto giant said Wednesday it has decided that it “will not pursue the potential acquisition” based on a “corporate due diligence” review.

Keep ReadingShow less

On Wednesday, John Kerry unveiled a plan for a new carbon credit program aimed at mobilizing private capital to help middle-income countries transition away from coal and move toward renewable energy.

Keep ReadingShow less

Meta announced it was laying off more than 11,000 employees Wednesday morning, slashing jobs in its recruiting department and refocusing its remaining team on AI discovery, ads, and its investment in the metaverse.

"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here," Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a message to employees that was also posted online. "I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted."

Keep ReadingShow less

Al Gore has one mission this week at COP27, and that’s to give climate negotiators what he hopes will be a critical tool to address the crisis at hand: an independent, global inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, down to the individual facility.

The Climate TRACE coalition just released the world’s most detailed inventory of global greenhouse gas emissions, which Gore, a founding member, is unveiling on Wednesday at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt.

Keep ReadingShow less

Way back in March, your friendly Protocol Climate team offered you some tips for writing a climate plan that doesn’t suck. Surely you took that advice. But if for some reason you didn’t, the United Nations has your back.

Keep ReadingShow less

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said Tuesday the crypto powerhouse signed a deal to acquire rival FTX.

Keep ReadingShow less

Salesforce is preparing for a major round of layoffs that could affect as many as 2,500 workers across the software vendor, Protocol has learned, in a bid to cut costs amid a new activist investor challenge and harsh economic conditions.

Keep ReadingShow less

BlockFi has introduced a new digital assets interest product for accredited investors, after previously agreeing to shut down a yield-paying crypto product that the SEC said was illegal.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Justice Department said Monday it seized $3.4 billion worth of bitcoin stolen in the 2012 hack of the Silk Road dark web marketplace.

Keep ReadingShow less

U.S. election infrastructure is exceedingly secure, and voter fraud here is so rare it’s comparable to your annual chances of getting struck by lightning. Despite this, former President Donald Trump and a long list of allies in the Republican Party have spent the last two years questioning the overall integrity of the U.S. election system. Many of those allies are now candidates themselves, and their coordinated attack on the country’s status as a democracy is not a relic of 2020. Some have already started repeating these “Big Lie” charges ahead of next week’s midterms. And the social platforms that help them spread their message have prepared few measures to stop it.

Keep ReadingShow less

The White House just laid out its climate tech priorities to reach net zero by 2050.

Keep ReadingShow less

Coinbase said Thursday that it lost more users in the third quarter. But the decline wasn’t the disastrous drop that Wall Street was expecting, and that sparked a rally in the crypto company’s shares after-hours.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Biden administration announced $9 billion in funding Wednesday to improve home efficiency, which could help support the installation of up to 500,000 heat pumps. With winter approaching and utilities warning of gas shortages, there are some major challenges facing the technology that money can be used to tackle.

Keep ReadingShow less

Block beat earnings expectations, with strong growth largely fueled by its Cash App business. Traders sent shares up more than 12% after-hours Thursday.

Keep ReadingShow less

Stripe is laying off 14% of its staff, its co-founders said Thursday, as the fintech startup must start "building differently for leaner times."

Keep ReadingShow less

Roku saw its revenue growth slow in Q3, and warned investors Wednesday that things are about to get worse: “A lot of Q4 ad campaigns are being canceled,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood during the company’s Q4 earnings call. “We’re seeing lots of big categories pull back. Telecom, insurance … even toy marketers are planning on reducing their spending.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Green jobs and corporate climate pledges abound, but skilled sustainability professionals are scarce.

Keep ReadingShow less

Robinhood reported a drop in third-quarter revenue but also a narrower loss on Wednesday, in a sign that it might be stabilizing its business as it attempts to recover from a staggering drop in the stock and crypto trading activity that fueled its growth.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bulletins