Amazon accused the Federal Trade Commission of overstepping its bounds and making unreasonable demands of its leadership.
The Big Tech company submitted a filing on Monday challenging the FTC over its investigations into the company’s premium subscription service, Amazon Prime. This investigation involves the subpoena of nearly 20 current and former Amazon employees and reflects FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan’s aggressive approach toward tech companies.
The subpoenas’ demands are “unduly burdensome, and calculated to serve no other purpose than to harass Amazon’s highest-ranking executives and disrupt its business operations,” according to the filing.
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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and founder Jeff Bezos are included in the subpoenas, as well as former retail head Dave Clark, his successor Doug Herrington, SVP of International Russ Grandinetti, and former Prime VP Greg Greeley. Amazon accused the FTC of dragging out the investigation process by serving individual subpoenas to executives before the July 4 holiday weekend.
The FTC “staff’s handling of this investigation has been unusual and perplexing,” the filing argues.
The commission has sought information on the number of consumers who have become “nonconsensual enrollees” in several Amazon services, including Prime, Audible, Amazon Music, Kindle, and others. The commission also requested to see if any executives used “ephemeral messaging” apps to discuss related subjects, such as the number of people enrolled in programs or the number of cancellations.
The FTC investigation follows a report from Insider regarding concerns from Amazon executives about whether Amazon customers felt like they were being tricked into signing up for Prime but deciding not to update the service’s languages out of concerns that it may slow down business growth.
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The FTC has been investigating Amazon Prime since March 2021, according to the filing. The company provided the agency with an estimated 37,000 documents and met with the FTC multiple times to answer questions. Talks between the two entities ended in February for unclear reasons, only to restart in April with a new attorney representing the FTC.
The FTC has gotten aggressive since President Joe Biden’s appointment of Khan. The agency took its first Big Tech-related case on July 27 by attempting to block Meta’s acquisition of the virtual reality developer Within. Khan made the call to block the merger despite its staff recommending against it, showing growing internal tension in the agency.
