D.C. attorney general forces Amazon to pay $8.25 million after four years of slower deliveries east of the Anacostia
Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced Thursday that roughly 69,000 Prime members in ZIP codes 20019 and 20020 will get money back, and Amazon must now tell customers upfront if their neighborhood is cut off from the company's own trucks.
In brief
For four years, tens of thousands of people in Wards 7 and 8 paid the same price for Amazon Prime as everyone else in the city. What they got was not the same service. Their packages moved through UPS or the U.S. Postal Service while neighbors on the other side of the Anacostia got Amazon's own branded trucks. Nobody at the company told them.
That changed Thursday. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced that Amazon will pay $8.25 million to settle the District's 2024 lawsuit over the practice. The money splits two ways: impacted District residents will get back nearly half of their total membership fee paid during the exclusion period, with Amazon paying $7.25 million in Prime membership fees and $1 million in penalties to the District.
The D.C. Attorney General's Office says more than 69,000 Prime members in ZIP codes 20019 and 20020 were impacted by the change. Those are the two easternmost ZIP codes in the District, covering neighborhoods including Deanwood, Benning Heights, Capitol View, Fort Dupont, and Hillcrest.
What Amazon actually did
The Office of the Attorney General sued Amazon in 2024, alleging the company had violated D.C. consumer protection law by secretly excluding ZIP codes 20019 and 20020 from Amazon's in-house, Amazon-branded delivery services, significantly slowing Prime deliveries to those areas, while continuing to charge tens of thousands of D.C. residents the full Prime subscription price.
The lawsuit accused Amazon of secretly excluding Ward 7 and Ward 8 ZIP codes from the company's own branded delivery services, using third-party carriers such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service instead, which significantly slowed delivery times, despite charging the same price for Prime memberships.
Amazon's position: driver safety. Amazon says its decision to change delivery operations was driven by safety concerns involving its drivers and denies that its practices were deceptive or discriminatory. "The safety of our customers and the drivers delivering to them has always guided our operational decisions, full stop," Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly said in a statement.
The company also disputed the AG's framing of what customers experienced. A spokesperson said, "claims that our practices, at any point, were deceptive are false, we're transparent with customers about delivery timelines throughout." Amazon said the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and that the company wanted to avoid prolonged litigation in order to focus on its delivery services.
The AG's office saw it differently. When consumers complained of slow delivery, Amazon concealed the exclusion and led customers to believe it was due to other circumstances, OAG said in its announcement.
Four years. Slower packages. No notice.
The timeline matters. The lawsuit alleged Amazon stopped using its own branded trucks to deliver in the two ZIP codes starting in June 2022, citing driver safety, and shifted to slower third-party carriers, without informing customers of the change. Amazon stopped the exclusions in Wards 7 and 8 in April 2026, according to the AG's office. That is roughly four years during which residents in those two ZIP codes paid for a service they were not receiving.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, impacted District residents will get back nearly half of the total membership fee they paid from June 2022 to April 2026. The math on a standard annual Prime membership works out to roughly $50 to $60 per customer, depending on when they joined and what plan they held, though the actual refund per person will vary.
Ward 8 resident Sehree Mickel said the difference was not abstract. Mickel said she noticed the difference firsthand, with some of her Prime orders taking five, six or even 10 days to arrive. We are not a priority because we are being discriminated against," Mickel said. "It's a predominantly Black community. We have seniors in our community, we have teachers, we have small businesses in our community, and when we can't get the services that we expected, same day, next day, that impacts the way that we're able to perform."
Another Ward 8 resident, quoted by WUSA9, put it plainly: "I feel like it's a majority Black community and it's not actually getting the services you get on the other side of the river."
This is not Amazon's first time in this particular spotlight
The 2022 exclusions did not appear from nowhere. A 2016 Bloomberg analysis found the company's same-day delivery service skipped over predominantly Black ZIP codes in six major U.S. cities, and Amazon's now-defunct restaurant delivery arm excluded those same D.C. neighborhoods two years later, years before this lawsuit was filed. Amazon said at the time the exclusions had nothing to do with race.
The AG's office noted the pattern in its announcement Thursday. Schwalb said in an Instagram post that "in 2022, Amazon started excluding Prime members with zip codes east of the river from in-house delivery services. Amazon knew this could slow down delivery speeds, but it did it anyway."
The settlement consent decree was filed Thursday in D.C. Superior Court. The settlement provides $7.25 million in refunds to Prime members in Ward 7 and 8 ZIP codes, in addition to requiring the company to pay the District $1 million in penalties, according to a signed consent decree filed Thursday in the D.C. Superior Court.
What the settlement requires going forward
Money is part of it. The structural piece matters too.
Going forward, the settlement requires Amazon to notify both customers and the OAG if it excludes any D.C. ZIP code from full delivery service for safety reasons. In the future, the company must notify existing customers and prospective customers who enter an affected address during the signup process of any expedited delivery exclusions.
Amazon will also change its business practices after Schwalb's office said the company deceived tens of thousands of D.C. residents. The OAG framed the new notification requirement as a consumer-protection floor: if Amazon ever pulls its trucks out of a D.C. neighborhood again, residents will know before they pay.
Schwalb put his office's position in blunt terms. "No company is above the law, no matter how big or powerful. My office will always fight to make sure businesses compete on a level playing field and treat their customers fairly so that DC residents get what they pay for, regardless of what zip code they live in," Schwalb said.
What D.C. residents should watch
Are you eligible for a refund? Eligible customers will receive details about their refunds in coming weeks. If you held an Amazon Prime membership with a billing or delivery address in ZIP code 20019 or 20020 at any point between June 2022 and April 2026, you are likely in the pool of roughly 69,000 customers. Watch for an email from Amazon. The OAG's office at oag.dc.gov is the authoritative source on how distribution will work.
The new disclosure requirement. Amazon stopped excluding Ward 7 and 8 consumers from full delivery services in April 2026, and this settlement puts safeguards in place to ensure D.C. customers can make informed decisions about their Prime memberships if Amazon chooses to implement delivery exclusions in the future. Whether those safeguards hold depends on OAG monitoring and, frankly, whether Amazon's systems are set up to trigger the notification automatically or require a human to remember to file it.
The bigger pattern east of the river. The Amazon case sits alongside a longer record of businesses treating Ward 7 and Ward 8 differently. One resident quoted by DC News Now described the neighborhoods as "actually in a food desert, a resource desert for basic needs." Whether Thursday's settlement produces any ripple effect on how the D.C. AG's office scrutinizes other companies that operate differentially across the Anacostia is an open question Schwalb's office has not yet answered publicly.
The election timing. Schwalb is on the November 3 ballot, running for re-election as incumbent Democratic attorney general. The Amazon announcement landed 33 days before Election Day, and it is the highest-profile consumer action his office has announced this year. That context does not make the settlement less real, but residents can weigh it however they choose.
The last package that arrived late at a Ward 7 doorstep under the old arrangement came in April 2026. The refund checks have not arrived yet.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
