D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced on October 1, 2026, that Amazon will pay $8.25 million to settle claims that it secretly cut two Washington ZIP codes out of its own Prime delivery network, and about 69,000 Prime members there will be repaid nearly half of the membership fees they paid during the exclusion. Of the total, $7.25 million goes to members as refunds and $1 million goes to the District as a penalty. Amazon denies wrongdoing. No refund amount has been published, and the attorney general’s office says notices are coming.
The ZIP codes are 20019 and 20020, east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8. The attorney general says Amazon began excluding them from its Amazon-branded delivery service in June 2022, kept the exclusion in place for four years and lifted it in April 2026. Members paid full price throughout, which has been $14.99 a month or $139 a year since 2022, and the District says Amazon never told them or people signing up that deliveries to those addresses would be handled differently.
Who gets a refund and how much
Refunds go to Prime members who lived in the two ZIP codes during the exclusion. According to the attorney general’s October 1 press release, which lists the settlement as its newest item, eligible customers “will be notified of their eligibility and the amount of their refund in the coming weeks.” The release does not say how the notice will arrive, whether members must return a form, or how the money will be paid, and Amazon has not announced those details either.
The $7.25 million in D.C. refunds depends on a notice that has not been sent yet, and a refund that arrives without a claim form is easy to lose track of. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System explains the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and keeps a claim log and payment tracker, so the amount and date on the Prime notice are written down when it lands.
Track the D.C. Prime refund notice and payment date in the Settlement & Refund Recovery System →
The attorney general describes each refund as a share of the member’s total fees, not as a flat check. Impacted residents, the release says, will get back nearly half of the total membership fee paid during the exclusion period. Because members joined and left Prime at different points between June 2022 and April 2026, the dollar amount will differ from one member to the next. The office has not named a minimum, a maximum or an average, so the word nearly half is the only measure of size on the record.
Claim instructions have not been posted. Top Class Actions reported that claim-filing instructions are not yet available, and that qualified customers will receive refunds in the coming weeks, which matches the attorney general’s timeline. Neither source says that a member who does not respond forfeits a refund. Until the notice arrives, the only firm facts for members are the two ZIP codes, the four-year window and the $7.25 million refund fund.
What the lawsuit said Amazon did
Schwalb sued in December 2024, and the case, District of Columbia v. Amazon.com Inc., is No. 2024-CAB-007611 in D.C. Superior Court. The complaint alleged violations of the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act. It said packages bound for the two ZIP codes were routed through slower carriers such as UPS and the U.S. Postal Service while Amazon kept advertising same-day, one-day and two-day delivery to people signing up for Prime. Two-day delivery in the area fell from nearly 75 percent of orders before the exclusion to 25 percent in 2023, the suit said, while citywide two-day delivery rose.
The attorney general also alleged that Amazon hid the exclusion when customers complained and blamed the delays on other circumstances. “Amazon deceived thousands of its customers who live East of the River, collecting their Prime membership fees while secretly excluding them from full Prime membership benefits,” Schwalb said in the release. He added that “no company is above the law, no matter how big or powerful.” The lawsuit was filed as a consumer-protection case, so the settlement is a payment to members and a penalty to the District, not a ruling on the facts.
Amazon rejects the accusation and says the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing. The company has said its delivery decisions rested on documented safety threats to drivers, and spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in 2024 that the step was taken “for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.” Top Class Actions reported that Amazon says conditions have since improved and that deliveries in the two ZIP codes have returned to its delivery service partners and Amazon Flex drivers.
New notice rules for Amazon in D.C.
The settlement also changes what Amazon must tell customers. If the company again excludes any residential D.C. ZIP code from its in-house delivery for safety reasons, it has to notify existing Prime customers in that area, and it has to warn prospective customers who enter an affected billing or delivery address during sign-up. The notice has to explain the exclusion and any effect on delivery speed or Prime benefits. Amazon must also tell the attorney general’s office about any such exclusion and confirm that affected customers were told.
That rule answers the core complaint in the District’s case, which was silence rather than the delivery decision itself. Amazon is not barred from limiting service where drivers face threats, according to the terms described in the release and in Top Class Actions’ account, but it can no longer do so without telling the people who pay for Prime. The $1 million penalty, about 12 percent of the $8.25 million total, goes to the District rather than to members.
Watching for the D.C. Amazon refund notice
The free source is the attorney general’s own announcement of the $8.25 million Amazon settlement, which names the ZIP codes, the $7.25 million refund fund and the notice timeline. Members in 20019 or 20020 who paid for Prime between June 2022 and April 2026 are the group described. Prime members elsewhere in D.C., and members in other states, are not covered by this settlement.
When the notice arrives it should state two things the release does not, eligibility and the amount of the refund. Prime membership charges appear in an Amazon account’s payment history, so the figure on the notice can be set against the fees actually billed, since the attorney general has described the refund as nearly half of the total paid. A notice that leaves out either number, or that asks for a card number or a fee to release the money, does not match what the attorney general has described.
The sequence still has gaps. The attorney general’s office has said who is covered, how much money is set aside and when notices are due, but not the method of payment or any filing deadline. The $7.25 million refund fund is fixed, and the notice, not the press release, will be the first document to show what a single account is owed.
Nearly half the fees back, but no amount yet
The D.C. attorney general has published a total, a share and a ZIP code list, but the one number that matters to a member, the refund amount, arrives only on the notice. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System shows the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice, so the amount and any deadline on it are caught, and its claim log and payment tracker record when the Prime refund was promised and when it actually lands.
Log the D.C. Prime refund amount and payment date in the claim tracker →
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Money Overview’s editorial team.
