Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent cease-and-desist letters to 40 major retailers on Wednesday, including Amazon, Target, Best Buy and Wayfair, demanding that they stop selling motorized scooters and e-bikes that are illegal to operate on New York City streets.
The letters require the companies to immediately halt sales of prohibited devices to city residents and businesses, PIX11 reported. Beginning August 18, retailers could face fines of up to $2,000 for each prohibited sale.
The action came one week after 17-year-old Gabriel Nacato was killed while riding a Deepower e-bike his family had purchased on Amazon. Mamdani said at a press conference that the vehicle was capable of exceeding 30 miles per hour, a speed that should never be reached in a bike lane, according to a transcript released by the mayor's office. Nacato was riding from Bensonhurst into Manhattan to meet a career counselor and complete summer job applications.
City law sets a 15 mile-per-hour speed limit for e-bikes and caps the devices themselves at 20 or 25 miles per hour depending on classification, with motors limited to 750 watts. Stand-up scooters may not exceed 100 pounds in weight or 20 miles per hour, PIX11 reported.
The devices named in the letters include e-bikes that exceed those limits, scooters above the wattage cap and mopeds sold without proper vehicle identification numbers. Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said the products are motorcycles being marketed to New Yorkers as bicycles.
Mamdani said his concern was that some of the largest retailers in the country had been operating outside the bounds of the law, ABC7 reported. He appeared alongside Attorney General Letitia James, Flynn and Corporation Counsel Steve Banks.
An Amazon spokesperson told PIX11 that the company is reviewing the products in question and requires e-bikes sold on its platform to meet applicable safety standards. Amazon has stopped shipping the model Nacato was riding to New York City. Target did not immediately respond to the outlet.
City data show more than 500 e-bike collisions and 795 scooter collisions so far this year, an increase of more than 28 percent over the same period in 2025, according to ABC7.