Amazon tells NYC it won’t sell illegal license plate covers in New York

Clayton Guse, New York Daily News
·2 min read
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Amazon has told city officials it will stop selling in New York devices that block or obscure license plates from toll readers, stop light and speeding cameras in a move that makes good on a law passed by the City Council last year.

The deal means the e-commerce giant will no longer ship to any New York state address equipment like “camera blockers” that cover license plates with tinted plastic to obscure them from view.

Amazon also agreed to display notifications on its website alerting customers that license plate covers are illegal in New York.

The City Council last year passed a law prohibiting the sale of license plate covers, which lapsed into approval on Mayor Adams’ ninth day in office.

The mayor’s office said in a news release Thursday that license plate cover sellers have largely ignored the mandate.

Adams last month said the NYPD and city Sheriff’s office would launch a new crack down on “ghost cars,” or vehicles that use phony paper plates or illegal license plate covers to skirt tolls, traffic cameras and law enforcement.

During the first seven months of 2022, the city towed nearly 2,000 illegally parked cars with covered or illegitimate license plates, Adams’ office says.

Public officials call vehicles with license plate covers or untraceable license plates “ghost cars.”

“Ghost cars are by design unsafe and untraceable, so in addition to finding and towing them, we’re going to stop them from appearing in the first place,” Adams said in a statement Thursday.

“Amazon has been a willing partner in the battle for street safety and we thank them for working with us to keep New York City streets safe.”

The agreement announced by Adams comes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority moves forward with its congestion pricing plan to toll motorists who drive south of 60th St. in Manhattan. The agency plans to use cameras that read license plates to charge drivers who do not have an E-ZPass.

The move against license plate covers is also important for street safety, city officials said. The city earlier this month reconfigured all of its speed cameras so they issue tickets to drivers moving at least 11 mph above the limit 24 hours a day after state lawmakers changed a law that only allowed them to be active from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays.