Amazon has filed a lawsuit alleging that the FTC harassed its founder Jeff Bezos
As part of an effort to “disrupt business operations,” Amazon claims the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) harassed founder Jeff Bezos and other employees. The Federal Trade Commission is now investigating whether Amazon’s Prime membership service engages in any variety of misleading practices related to membership signup and termination. According to Business Insider, the investigation into this matter has been ongoing since March 2021, and the 49-page court document(Opens in a new window) is in reaction to this (Opens in a new window). The article mostly focuses on the subpoenas issued to corporate insiders such as founder Jeff Bezos, CEO Andy Jassy, former retail chief Dave Clark, his replacement Doug Herrington, and former Prime.
Since these subpoenas are “unduly burdensome” and “designed to serve no other purpose than to harass Amazon’s highest-ranking officials and disrupt its commercial activities,” Amazon is demanding that they be nullified. Concerns have been raised about the fact that the investigation has been expanded to include services that don’t require a Prime membership, such as Audible, Amazon Music, Kindle Unlimited, and Subscribe & Save, as the filing shows.
The lawsuit also raises issues with the FTC’s decision to bar Amazon workers from retaining the services of Covington & Burling, on the grounds that doing so would be “improper.” The FTC is under fire for allegedly dragging its feet and then telling Amazon it’s under “tremendous pressure” to settle the case by the fall. The FTC made the application public on Monday, which was initially submitted on August 5. As a result, the Financial Times reports, the relationship between Amazon and the FTC will worsen, but at least the FTC commissioners will have to vote on Amazon’s recommendations (opens in a new window).