New Jersey Sues Amazon Over Delivery Driver Market Power

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.com on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The state alleges that Amazon abused its market power over independent delivery drivers within its Delivery Service Partner program to suppress competition and maintain artificially low wages and poor working conditions.

The complaint accuses Amazon of operating a monopsony in the delivery driver labor market, which allowed the company to punish workers attempting to unionize and prevent contractors from poaching drivers from one another. Davenport stated that Amazon built a company worth trillions while subjecting its delivery network to punishing conditions due to its overwhelming labor market power.

Amazon has not yet responded to requests for comment on this specific legal action. However, the company has previously denied similar antitrust allegations brought by the state of California and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.