Amazon SUED By Prime Members Over Costly Whole Foods Delivery Fee
By MLC on June 14, 2022 at 9:15 AM EDT
Amazon is in trouble!
Prime members are HEATED over the company’s Whole Foods delivery fee.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the e-commerce company started by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Jeff Bezos' Company Is Under Fire!
According to reports, Amazon Prime members used to have a free delivery on Whole Foods orders, but that changed last year.
The tech giant now charges Prime members a $9.95 delivery fee for orders from Whole Foods.
Prime members believe they were bamboozled by Bezos’ company and are retaliating with lawsuits.
Prime Members Are Suing Amazon Over Whole Foods Delivery Fee
In 2018, Amazon announced it would offer Prime members free two-hour delivery on Whole Foods groceries for orders totaling $35 or more.
In one class-action lawsuit filed in May, two plaintiffs allege Amazon “engaged in unfair business practices, beached its duty of good faith, and deprived Prime members of the benefit of their bargain” by making the change.
The plaintiffs say the company should’ve reduced the cost of a Prime membership accordingly, or else offered members a refund, after eliminating the perk.
Insider spoke to an attorney representing the plaintiffs.
"Individuals signed up for the benefit of Amazon Prime to provide free Whole Foods delivery, at a time when most were avoiding going to stores, and still do," Thiago Coelho, an attorney at Wilshire Law Firm in Los Angeles representing the plaintiffs, told the outlet. "To strip that benefit from those individuals after gaining additional members and market share is concerning to any member who was induced to sign up exactly for that reason."
In a different class-action lawsuit filed in June, the plaintiff claims Amazon misled customers with false representations of “Free Delivery” as well as “Free 2-Hour Grocery Delivery.”
Amazon Accused Of "Drip Pricing"
The lawsuit alleges Amazon used “drip pricing.”
Drip pricing is a technique used by online retailers of goods and services whereby a headline price is advertised at the beginning of the purchase process, following which additional fees, taxes or charges, which may be unavoidable, are then incrementally disclosed or "dripped."
"Amazon engages in a bait-and-switch advertising scheme by not disclosing the $9.95 service fee along with the advertised price of the Whole Foods grocery items," the lawsuit alleged. "Amazon advertises groceries from Whole Foods at a certain price and then tacks on a mandatory 'service fee' later in the ordering process after the consumer is already invested in the ordering process."
Fans took to Twitter to air the grievances with Whole Foods and Amazon.
“I was just in Whole Foods yesterday please amazon prime let me see the whole thing,” one tweeted.
Another wrote, “Why does Whole Foods charge for delivery through amazon if I already have prime, I just want my vegan Mac n cheese.”
“GOOD! The double dipping is out of hand,” someone else replied.
This avid Prime user and Whole Foods customer tweeted, “I noticed the egregious hike from “free” to $9.99 for @WholeFoods via @AmazonPrime the other day. Done w/ that. Free wasn’t actually free to start with.. coz you pay for Prime benefits. Can get what I need other. ways, when I can’t go myself. “
Per Insider, Amazon Prime subscriptions recently became more expensive. In March, the company hiked the cost of an annual membership from $119 to $139 and a monthly membership from $12.99 to $14.99. Amazon previously raised the Prime membership price twice, once in 2014 and once in 2018.
