Settlements & Refunds · Notice
Amazon Flex tips: $60.6 million returned
A third round of payments is going to drivers whose tips Amazon kept between 2016 and 2019, this time to people who never cashed the first check.
The Federal Trade Commission is sending a third round of payments to Amazon Flex drivers whose customer tips were withheld by the company between 2016 and 2019. Across the three rounds the program has now returned more than $60.6 million in tips to drivers.
The case, and why it has taken three rounds
Amazon Flex is the company's gig delivery program, and the FTC's case concerned tips that customers paid expecting them to reach the driver. The agency's case page records the sequence: the FTC first sent payments in November 2021, then a second round in May 2025, and is now sending Zelle payments to people who did not cash their check.
That last detail explains the long tail. A refund program does not end when the checks go out. Gig drivers move, change bank accounts and change phone numbers, and a large share of any first-round checks are never cashed. Rather than let the money revert, the FTC returns to the same list with a different payment method, which is why a driver who ignored an envelope in 2021 can still be paid in 2026.
How the payment arrives
By Zelle, deposited directly into the bank account linked to the driver's contact details, with a note about the settlement. Nothing needs to be claimed. The FTC has the driver records from Amazon, so eligibility is decided from the company's own data rather than from anything a driver submits.
If you drove for Flex in that window and have received nothing across all three rounds, the case page names the refund administrator and gives a number to call. That page is the only place to check; a text message or email offering to "verify" your eligibility for a tips refund is not from the FTC, which never asks for bank details or a fee to release a payment.
The wider pattern
Gig platforms have produced a run of these cases: this one over tips, and a separate FTC and New York Attorney General case against the Handy platform, owned by Angi Services, over deceptive earnings claims and undisclosed fees charged to workers, which paid 62,893 people more than $2.7 million. What they have in common is a gap between what the platform advertised a worker would earn and what the worker actually received.
The FTC refunds tracker lists the programs paying out now, with the totals and whether any action is needed.
What to do
- Check the bank account linked to the phone number or email you used as a Flex driver; Zelle payments arrive there with a settlement note. Official link
- If you drove for Flex in that period and nothing has arrived across three rounds, the FTC case page gives the administrator to contact. Official link
Questions readers ask
- Who qualifies for the Amazon Flex refund?
- Amazon Flex drivers whose customer tips were withheld by the company between 2016 and 2019. The FTC works from the driver records, so eligibility is decided without a claim.
- Why is there a third round of payments?
- Because many first-round checks were never cashed. The FTC first paid in November 2021, again in May 2025, and is now sending Zelle payments to people who did not cash their check, bringing the total returned past $60.6 million.
- I drove for Flex in that period but received nothing. What can I do?
- The FTC case page names the refund administrator and gives a number to call. Reach the page by typing the FTC’s address; the agency never asks for bank details or a fee to release a payment.
Filed under: FTC refunds: who is being paid now, Open settlements: what to claim, and when
Mentioned:Federal Trade Commission
How we reported this
Built from 2 primary documents linked in the Source Card. Every number was copied from the document, not from another outlet.
Written by Mirza Seraj Baig · Checked against the documents in the source card (editorial standards).