Amazon claims FTC is harassing Bezos, CEO
U.S. regulator stepping up its antitrust investigation
Amazon.com Inc. accused the US Federal Trade Commission of harassing its founder Jeff Bezos and the company’s chief executive officer Andy Jassy as it probes the ecommerce giant’s business practices.
In a filing made public on Monday, Amazon claimed FTC staff have made “unduly burdensome” demands as the agency investigates whether the company’s subscription services, including Amazon Prime, violate consumer protection laws. The online retailer is seeking to quash or limit the FTC’s most recent civil investigative demands, which are similar to subpoenas.
Amazon said the FTC’s requests are “unworkable for Amazon to discern the information staff demands and to respond in the time frame allowed.”
The FTC, which has both antitrust and consumer protection mandates, has been investigating Amazon for potential anticompetitive conduct for several years.
The filing offers an unusually public glimpse into the ongoing struggle between one of the world’s biggest companies and one of its regulators.
FTC chair Lina Khan, who took over the position in June 2021, has escalated the investigation, shaking up the team, re-interviewing potential witnesses and asking questions about the company’s recent acquisition of MGM Studios, Bloomberg reported in May. The FTC declined to comment. Amazon has taken a particularly antagonistic approach as it faces scrutiny from the FTC, said Maurice Stucke, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division who now teaches law at the University of Tennessee. Stucke pointed out that Amazon previously attempted to force Khan to recuse herself from the Amazon investigation altogether.
“Generally, this approach over the long run is not workable,” said Stucke, comparing Amazon’s approach to Microsoft Corp.’s stance in the 1990s as it faced antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department. “The day of reckoning for Amazon is coming.”
Microsoft was “very confrontational” when it first began battling the government in the 1990s, but “ultimately, they relented,” said Stucke. Microsoft appealed after losing at trial and the case was settled in 2001.
The Biden administration has stepped up antitrust enforcement as a keystone of its economic policy.