Davis v. Amazon Canada Fulfillment Services ULC

Analysis Group was retained on behalf of Amazon Canada Fulfillment Services, the defendant in a proposed class action brought by delivery drivers of Amazon packages in Canada. The plaintiff – a member of a proposed class of approximately 73,000 individuals who used the Amazon Flex app to deliver packages – alleged that some drivers had been mischaracterized as independent contractors, while others had an indirect contractual relationship with Amazon Canada that allowed it to avoid its employment obligations under Canadian law. The plaintiff sought to certify a nationwide class comprising all individuals who delivered Amazon packages in Canada since 2016. 

An Analysis Group team including Vice President Brendan Rogers and Managing Principals Gaurav Jetley and Jee-Yeon Lehmann provided consulting support to counsel and supported Senior Advisor Daniel Slottje, who filed an expert report and provided testimony. Dr. Slottje evaluated the plaintiff’s expert’s proposed damages model and opined that the proposed method for assessing class-wide proof of injury and proposed calculation of aggregate damages were fundamentally flawed.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice denied certification of the class and granted Amazon’s motion to stay the class action for all delivery drivers in favor of arbitration. The Court stated that even if the proposed class action were certifiable, it would not have certified aggregate damages as a common issue because liability could not be determined in common, and found there was no viable method of quantifying aggregate damages.