Online retail giant Amazon owes New York City more than $9.8 million in fines and penalties related to illegal idling across the five boroughs — more than any other company, according to data crunched by local anti-idling activists.
Amazon has paid just $5,400 of the fines and penalties it owes on 5,268 idling violations through the Department of Environmental Protection's Citizens Air Complaint Program, which allows members of the public to submit complaints about idling commercial vehicles and receive a portion of any resulting fine paid by the companies. The city has issued another nearly $350,000 in violations that have yet to go to court.
"As the largest corporation in the world, Amazon rents our streets essentially for free, blocking traffic and pumping pollution in our lungs," the New York Clean Air Collective, a group of citizen idling enforcers, said in a statement. "But when it comes time for this $2-trillion company to pay the penalties for illegally polluting our air, Amazon just can’t be bothered."
The company's tab exceeded $10 million until the Department of Finance managed to collect some of its outstanding debt, agency spokesman Ryan Lavis told Streetsblog.
"The Department of Finance's Collections Unit has recently recovered more than $870,000 in outstanding debt from Amazon. We continue to actively pursue collection of this debt," Lavis said in an email.
The citizen enforcement program has led to a boom in anti-idling enforcement since the late 2010s, when the City Council ordered DEP to allow members of the public to participate. In 2024, DEP issued more than 118,000 summonses for illegal idling through the program, according to data tracked by advocates.
The agency has leveraged the fines to win electrification commitments, in exchange for exemptions from idling enforcement, from several companies — but not Amazon, which has paid more than $7 million in idling fines and fees through the program.
Ex-Mayor Eric Adams's Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, who left the agency at the end of January, met with the company early in his tenure to discuss idling reduction and fleet electrification, agency spokesperson Deja Stewart told Streetsblog. Those conversations did not result in any commitments from the Jeff Bezos-run corporation, Stewart said.
Amazon's vehicular presence in the five boroughs has boomed with the growth of online retail, but its vehicles are usually operated by delivery people who technically work for third-party "Delivery Service Partners," not Amazon. The city nevertheless issues violations incurred by Amazon-branded trucks to Amazon.
Beyond the deleterious health impact of vehicle idling on air quality, Amazon's business also impacts traffic safety: A 2025 report by then-New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found double-digit-percent increases in injury-causing traffic crashes in the vicinity of Amazon last-mile warehouses after the open.
Reps for Amazon did not return multiple requests for comment.
Anti-idling warriors from the New York Clean Air Collective called on the city to sue for Amazon's outstanding debts.
“When it comes to our environmental and safety laws, Amazon isn’t just a dangerous scofflaw — breaking the law is Amazon’s entire business model," the group said. "Although it appears that the city has not yet sued Amazon to collect this debt, we look forward to the Mamdani Administration holding Amazon accountable as soon as possible.”
