Battle over NYC bill on Amazon DSPs waits to resume

Official proceedings on New York City’s potentially groundbreaking law that would impact the relationship between Amazon and its Direct Service Providers (DSPs) has gone quiet for the summer but amidst signs that there might be a shift in the most draconian aspects of the law following a public hearing in April.

The dedicated page for the legislation, known as the Delivery Protection Act but also referred to as Intro 518 based on its labeling within the New York City City Council, shows no action on the bill since the April hearing.

While the day’s presentations and pre-hearing demonstrations could be passionate and loud–especially outside City Hall before it opened its doors for the Council session–some of the testimony by a panel of business group representatives was somewhat less pointed as members of the Council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection considered the possible ramifications of the legislation’s implementation.

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display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); While there are numerous provisions in the proposal, its key regulations would be that delivery companies in New York City would need to be licensed, and that subcontracting out deliveries by a company operating the “core services” of delivery would be prohibited.

“All workers providing core warehouse services at last-mile facilities in the city shall be directly employed by the facility operator,” is the wording in the legislation.

Requirement to hire Another key aspect of the law is that workers displaced by the transfer of those “core services” from an independent contractor–like an Amazon DSP–to the “facility operator,” such as Amazon, must be hired by the facility operator. Licenses can be revoked if a New York City agency finds various violations of labor standards.

“Things tend to get quiet in the summer, particularly as the Council and the mayor work through the budget,” Kendra Hems, president of the Trucking Association of New York, said in an interview with FreightWaves. “At this point, we’re anticipating we will not see too much more until maybe sometime in the fall.”

There are 32 co-sponsors of the bill in the 52-member Council. That is down from the 41 co-sponsors of its predecessor bill, which died at the end of 2025 when the Council failed to take action on it by the end of the year.

But even as the Delivery Protection Act sits on the Council calendar with no further action listed, sources close to the process said the apparently dead summer masks the fact that this is a period known as “amendment season,” when changes to the original bill are being discussed and drafted, though none have shown up in the bill as of yet. window.

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display('div-gpt-ad-1665767553440-0'); }); The backers of the bill originally sponsored by Council member Tiffany Caban are reportedly suggesting they would be open to some changes in the legislation, including a possible option where Amazon and its DSPs become joint employers of the drivers and other employees.

But Amazon has fought hard against other efforts to be labeled a joint employer, and recently looked headed to a significant victory in that battle with the Teamsters in California. Hems called the provisions in the proposal “gross overreach.” An email sent to an Amazon spokesman had not been responded to by publication time. A change in structure?

Another option that might satisfy the Council’s backers might be for the DSPs to be allowed to become more of an independent contractor (IC), with less control–a loaded word in the legal landscape for defining a true IC–than Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) now exerts.

Sources close to the DSP ecosystem have suggested that Amazon has considered changing that tight model, as it is frequently battling over the question of control in courts and other forums.

James Parrott, a labor economist at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, who has specialized in issues relating to gig workers and independent contractor status, was skeptical that there could be a significant level of change that would still meet the goals of the backers. window. googletag = window.