The Paper Trainee Reporter Yang Yang, the boss of
, was issued a civil subpoena. Amazon could not sit still and submitted documents to accuse the US Federal Trade Commission.
On August 16, local time, the " Wall Street Journal " reported that e-commerce giant Amazon (Amazon) accused the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of harassing founder Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos), current CEO Andy Jassy and other senior executives interfered with the company's business operations.
Amazon submitted a petition document to the FTC on August 5, accusing the FTC of bypassing the company’s legal counsel and issuing civil investigative demands (Civil Investigative Demand) similar to subpoenas to about 20 executives without giving legitimate reasons. FTC withdraws subpoena.
The FTC accused Amazon of inducing users to register
Petition documents show that since March 2021, the FTC has been investigating Amazon Prime. According to the document, the FTC believes that there are problems with Prime's registration and cancellation mechanism. It suspects that Amazon uses the interface to design guidance and manipulates users to register for Prime, and deliberately makes the cancellation process cumbersome to retain users.
According to a report by US media Insider in March, an Amazon spokesperson denied the above-mentioned doubts at the time and said that Prime's registration and unsubscription interface "concisely and clearly shows users the meaning of each option."
Amazon stated that the company has been cooperating with the FTC’s investigation and has produced and submitted approximately 37,000 pages of documents. However, the investigation inexplicably stalled for six months. It was not until April this year that the FTC suddenly announced that new lawyers would take over the case and began to exert "crazy pressure" to conclude the investigation before this fall.
Amazon said that after the investigation was restarted, the FTC not only required the company to provide more documents and evidence, but also expanded the scope of the investigation. In addition to Amazon Prime, five subscription services including Audible, Amazon Music, Kindle Unlimited, and Subscribe Save have also been included in the FTC investigation list.
In addition, in June this year, the FTC also sent civil investigation requests similar to subpoenas to about 20 current or former executives. Company founder Bezos, current CEO Andy Jassy and former consumer executive Dave Clark are all involved.
Amazon accused the FTC of bypassing the company’s legal counsel and sending subpoenas directly to the homes of relevant individuals, and also prohibited the above-mentioned individuals from having contact with lawyers. "This kind of behavior is unfeasible and unfair. The company has always been highly cooperative with the investigation and provided sufficient evidence and materials. There is no reason for the FTC to launch an investigation to senior officials and ask them to provide information."
Amazon emphasized that the FTC's behavior Harassed the company's most senior executives and disrupted business operations. It expressed in the petition that it hopes the FTC can withdraw these subpoenas.
Under FTC rules, companies can dispute the investigation, and the FTC will respond within 40 days. Amazon hopes the FTC will extend its response time to September 15.
33-year-old FTC head
It is worth noting that during the investigation of this case, the leadership of the FTC changed. In June 2021, the FTC ushered in the youngest chairman in history, 32-year-old Lena Khan ( Lina Khan).
Lena Khan has publicly criticized technology giants many times. In 2017, he published an article "Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox" in the Yale Law Journal, advocating rethinking antitrust enforcement in the digital market. The article caused a huge response, and Lena Khan emerged as one of the leading figures in the antitrust movement.
Lina Khan. People’s Vision Data Map
As an expert on antitrust issues and an associate professor at Columbia University Law School, Lina Khan pays attention to the antitrust field. Under her leadership, the FTC has become more aggressive in antitrust enforcement. US consumer news and business channel CNBC said that the FTC under Lena Khan is very "tricky" for Amazon.
Previously, Amazon had asked Lena Khan to recuse herself from the company’s investigation, saying that Lena Khan’s previous remarks proved that she could not make a fair judgment on Amazon, but the petition was unsuccessful.
html On August 16, US stocks closed. Amazon rose 1.12% to US$144.78 per share. It has fallen by more than 15% this year.Editor in charge: Dongdong Picture editor: Zhang Tongze
Proofreading: Zhang Yan
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-