Amazon to pay $62M for stiffing drivers on tips

Amazon will pay the Federal Trade Commission $61.7 million to settle allegations that it knowingly withheld customer tips from its drivers over a two-and-a-half-year period, the regulator announced this week.

On Tuesday, the FTC said the $61.7 represents the full amount Amazon is suspected of failing to pay its Flex program drivers in tips. The money will be put in an escrow fund to compensate the drivers.

“Rather than passing along 100 percent of customers’ tips to drivers, as it had promised to do, Amazon used the money itself,” Daniel Kaufman, the FTC’s acting director of consumer protection said in a statement. “Our action today returns to drivers the tens of millions of dollars in tips that Amazon misappropriated, and requires Amazon to get drivers’ permission before changing its treatment of tips in the future.”

Seattle-area Amazon drivers have complained their tips went missing in the past, including as recently as September, according to the Seattle Times. In that case, Amazon apologized and said it was working to resolve the problem.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2021/02/03/amazon-to-pay-for-stiffing-drivers.html

I wasn't aware of the Flex program till now. It seems all of the stuff I've ordered from Amazon has been delivered by FedEx or Amazon's own vans.