New York, Dec 5 (IANS): The attorney general of the US District of Columbia sued Amazon, accusing it of violating consumer protection laws by making slower deliveries to Prime members in historically lower-income neighbourhoods.

In one of the first complaints of its kind, which was filed with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb on Wednesday said Amazon had deliberately and secretly stopped its fastest delivery service to the nearly 50,000 Prime subscribers in certain ZIP codes that were lower-income neighbourhoods, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the lawsuit, Amazon has used third parties like United Parcel Service and the Postal Service to make Prime deliveries in those areas for the past two years. That resulted in slower deliveries than those made by Amazon's own delivery drivers, who serve other Washington residents.

Amazon "cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one ZIP code is worth less than a dollar in another," Schwalb said in a statement. "We're suing to stop this deceptive conduct and make sure District residents get what they're paying for."

"The suit adds to growing regulatory scrutiny of Amazon's treatment of customers," said The New York Times in its report about the situation. The District of Columbia sued the company in 2021 over price-fixing allegations, a case that an appeals court revived in August. In a suit filed last year, the Federal Trade Commission accused Amazon of illegally protecting a monopoly over swaths of online retail by squeezing merchants and favouring its own services.