Amazon’s DSP Joint-Employer Battle Keeps Going

An appellate court ruling at the end of 2025 blocked the injunction that would have halted the NLRB proceeding against Amazon over a now-closed Direct Service Provider (DSP) — the latest installment in the multi-year effort by the Teamsters to argue Amazon is a joint employer of the drivers who deliver its packages.

The stakes here are huge. Amazon’s last-mile delivery network depends heavily on the DSP model: independent companies that own the vehicles, hire the drivers, manage day-to-day operations, and contract with Amazon to deliver packages. If Amazon is a joint employer of those drivers, then Amazon (not just the DSP) is potentially obligated to bargain with any union that organizes a DSP — and is on the hook for any unfair labor practices that occur.

The Teamsters have been chipping away at this in several jurisdictions, with varying degrees of success. The recent ruling — denying Amazon’s bid to enjoin the NLRB proceeding — does not decide the joint-employer question on the merits. It just means the agency proceeding goes forward.

The joint-employer doctrine has been on a regulatory roller coaster. The Biden NLRB tried to expand it dramatically with a 2023 rule that was eventually struck down. The 2020 rule from the first Trump administration — focused on actual exercise of direct and immediate control — is essentially back in play. Under that framework, entities that simply set broad parameters, establish performance expectations, or maintain contractual rights they don’t exercise are less likely to be found joint employers. And those of us who have been practicing labor relations long enough remember the Browning-Ferris debacle under Obama.

For employers using contractor networks — logistics, hospitality, construction, retail — three things matter:

1. Contractual rights you don’t exercise can still be evidence. The narrower 2020 rule helps, but a court that wants to find joint employment can still find it based on how you actually operate.

2. Day-to-day control is the key fact pattern. Routing decisions, scheduling, performance metrics, and discipline decisions are the places joint-employer findings originate.

3. Watch how your contractors respond to unions. If your DSP, franchisee, or staffing contractor reacts to a union drive in ways that echo your own corporate position, that synergy can support a joint-employer finding.

Amazon’s structure remains an outlier in scale, but the legal questions it’s facing matter to every company that relies on independent contractor networks.