New York City is moving to cut off the supply of illegal high-speed e-bikes at the source. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, joined by state Attorney General Letitia James, announced that the city, acting through its Corporation Counsel, has sent cease-and-desist letters to more than 40 online retailers. The letters demand that the companies immediately stop selling e-bikes and motorized scooters that exceed the city's legal speed and power limits to customers in the five boroughs.
The city is taking aim at some of the largest retailers in the country, naming e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Best Buy among the companies receiving the notices. Officials said those firms have been operating outside the bounds of the law. Attorney General James framed the demand as a basic one, saying the city is simply asking the retailers to follow a law that has been on the books for more than five years and that they continue to violate, and not in a marginal way.
The crackdown was announced at City Hall a week after 17-year-old Gabriel Nakato was struck and killed while riding an electric bicycle capable of reaching more than 30 miles per hour, a device his family had given him. The crash happened just steps from NYPD headquarters. "Gabriel should still be with us today," Mamdani said, tying the enforcement push directly to the teenager's death.
Officials pointed to a broader pattern of danger on the city's streets. Between 2017 and 2025, they said, more than half of e-bike rider deaths in New York City involved illegal high-speed bikes. James acknowledged that it can be hard for ordinary New Yorkers to know whether a given vehicle is illegal when they are able to buy it online with a few clicks, which is part of why the city is targeting the sellers rather than only the riders.
New York City sets three classifications for e-bikes and motorized scooters, with caps on speed limits of roughly 20 to 25 miles per hour. The cease-and-desist orders are aimed at devices that blow past those limits, the kind of machines officials say can travel sometimes more than double the legal speed. The action is meant to stop those vehicles from being shipped into the city in the first place.
The threat is not limited to the people riding the devices. Officials cited a crash this past May in which Francis Del Valle, riding an illegal electric scooter capable of speeds up to 53 miles per hour, collided with Dmitry Stachenko, a cyclist, on the Queensboro Bridge. The example was offered as evidence of how the illegal machines put pedestrians, cyclists and other road users at risk, not just their operators.
The retailers have until August 18 to comply with the cease-and-desist orders. After that deadline, the city could impose a fine of $2,000 for each sale of an illegal bike. Attorney General James applauded the administration for issuing the orders, casting the effort as part of a wider push to make the city's streets safer and to hold major online sellers accountable for products that are already barred under existing law.