Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s win against DoorDash is just one battle in his bigger war on delivery companies.
The $131.5 million settlement accomplished what former mayor Eric Adams’ administration had begun. Now, regulating companies like Amazon, DoorDash, and Uber Eats has become a pillar of Mamdani’s approach to the business world: His administration confronts blue-chip employers with lawsuits and tighter policies, and supports union efforts to boost worker safety and financial security.
Business Insider spoke with City Hall leaders, union representatives, and companies at the center of Mamdani’s delivery work crackdown. Worker advocates are pushing for even tighter protections, while employers worry about what it means for their businesses and operations in the city.
DoorDash said in its Tuesday statement, “We screwed up,” but other companies say increased regulation could make it harder for delivery businesses to operate in NYC.
DoorDash isn’t the first delivery app to get dinged in NYC
Regulating the delivery economy is thorny, especially when thousands of New Yorkers’ incomes are on the line. Business leaders, big and small, say that with more hoops to jump through, they will be less likely to invest in jobs in NYC.
The administration has received this criticism before, with business leaders concerned that Mamdani’s policies — ranging from city-run grocery stores to taxes — could undermine job stability for small vendors and local workers.
The Mamdani administration’s main focus has been on eliminating delivery app junk fees and enforcing scheduling laws and gig worker protections enacted before the mayor took office.
The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection led the effort to secure the DoorDash settlement after a court found that 264,000 Dashers were underpaid or paid late.
The DCWP previously settled multimillion-dollar lawsuits with Uber Eats and Hungry Panda over what courts found to be labor violations, like unnecessary charges and unfair wages. Commissioner Sam Levine called the Tuesday settlement “a real game changer for our enforcement and our policy development.”
Few cities have the kind of gig worker protections that NYC is pushing for, and any wins from the Mamdani camp could set the tone for worker protections in other metros. “My message to other cities is copy us, do better than us,” Levine told Business Insider.
Beyond legislation, Mamdani’s team sponsored a new Deliverista Hub in lower Manhattan with charging stations and resources for workers at app-based delivery companies.
Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Workers’ Justice Project — a union representing delivery workers, cleaners, and construction workers — told Business Insider over the summer that her organization has seen the mayor, “delivering settlements, making concrete changes in the industry, forcing app delivery companies into compliance, and ensuring they treat workers more fairly and with dignity.”
Up Next: Amazon
In August, Mamdani announced his support for the Delivery Worker Protection Act, a City Council bill that would increase licensing requirements for companies operating delivery-focused warehouse facilities, opening the door to expanded safety, training, and resources for workers. It would also make it more difficult for online sellers like Amazon to hire subcontractors without the same benefits and safety protections as full-time employees.
Amazon delivery workers don’t operate under the same schedule and pay structure as traditional gig workers — they are direct W-2 employees of the companies that contract with Amazon to drop off packages rather than operating independently — but City Hall is taking steps to improve their working conditions, too.
The retail goliath contracts with last-mile warehouses in New York, where subcontractors handle the final step of the delivery process. Eighteen of those facilities opened in the five boroughs between 2017 and 2025, per the Comptroller’s Office.
Despite being a full-time delivery contractor, NYC delivery driver and union leader Luc Rene said that his shifts and weekly income are unpredictable, and he often has to buy his own work equipment.
“It’s always a fight to get a job,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues aren’t always guaranteed 40-hour weeks.
A spokesperson for Amazon referred reporters to the company’s testimony sent to City Hall over the latest delivery worker protection proposal, which says the law would threaten “the small businesses that deliver to customers, putting the jobs of more than 5,000 of their employees at risk, and forcing us to consider relocating delivery operations outside of the city.”
The New York Delivers Coalition, a group of 50 small businesses, also sent a letter to lawmakers in August, asking them to “consider the real world ramifications this legislation will have on the small, family-owned business community.”
As the mayor’s worker protection czar, Levine said his next policy goals include cracking down on dynamic pricing and algorithm-created wages for New Yorkers, which Business Insider found already impacts the delivery economy.
“We’re in a complex economy — there’s going to be complexity — it’s who gets to make the rules,” Levine said. “Do we leave that entirely to corporate America, or do we say that the people of the city of New York should have some say in how much workers are getting paid, what relief they’re entitled to when they’re underpaid?”
