WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are ordering Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jesse to testify in a government investigation into Amazon Prime, rejecting the company’s complaint that the popular streaming and shopping service Executives are being unfairly harassed in service investigations.
The Federal Trade Commission issued an order late Wednesday denying Amazon’s request to quash the civil subpoenas it sent in June to Bezos and Jesse, the Seattle-based company’s former CEO. The order also set a January 20 deadline to complete all testimony by Bezos, Jesse and 15 other senior executives who were also subpoenaed.
Jassy took over the helm of the online retail and tech company from Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, in July 2021. Bezos became executive chairman.
FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson said in the ruling on behalf of the agency that Amazon has not made a case that the subpoenas “present an undue burden in terms of scope or timing.” However, the FTC agreed to modify some provisions of the petition that it acknowledged were too broad.
The FTC has been investigating the sign-up and cancellation practices of Amazon Prime, which has an estimated 200 million members worldwide, since March 2021.
The company said it was disappointed but not surprised that the FTC ruled largely in favor of its position, but was pleased that the agency “supported its broader requests” in the subpoenas.
“Amazon has cooperated with the FTC during the investigation and has already produced tens of thousands of pages of documents,” the company said in a statement. “We are committed to engaging constructively with FTC staff, but we are concerned that the latest requests are overly broad and unnecessarily burdensome, and we will explore all of our options.”
In a petition filed with the FTC last month, the company objected to the subpoenas for Bezos and Jesse, saying the agency “has not shown any legitimate reason to require their testimony when it could have obtained the same information.” is, and more, from other witnesses and documents.” Amazon said the FTC is holding Bezos, Jesse and other executives, calling the information sought in the subpoena “overbroad and burdensome.”
The investigation includes at least four other Amazon-owned subscription programs: Audible, Amazon Music, Kindle Unlimited and Subscribe & Save, as well as an unidentified third-party program not offered by Amazon. Regulators have asked the company to identify the number of consumers who were enrolled in the programs without their consent, along with other consumer information.
With an estimated 150 million U.S. subscribers, Amazon Prime is a major source of revenue, as well as a major source of revenue for the company, which operates an e-commerce empire and a leader in cloud computing, personal “smart” tech and beyond. Works in business. . Amazon Prime costs $139 a year. The service added a coveted feature this year by acquiring exclusive video rights to the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.”
Last year, Amazon unsuccessfully asked FTC Chair Lena Khan to recuse herself from a separate antitrust investigation into its business, claiming her public criticism of the company’s market power before joining the government. It makes it impossible for them to be neutral. Khan was a vocal critic of tech giants Facebook (now Meta), Google and Apple, as well as Amazon. She arrived on the antitrust scene in 2017, writing an influential study titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” while a Yale law student.
