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The Federal Trade Commission asked a judge in Seattle to delay the start of his trial accusing Amazon To deceive consumers to register for their prime program, citing resources limitations.
The FTC lawyers submitted the application during a status hearing on Wednesday before Judge John Chun in the United States District Court for the West District of Washington. Chun had established a start date of September 22 for the trial.
Jonathan Cohen, a FTC lawyer, asked Chun to a continuation of two months in the case due to staffing and budget deficits.
The FTC application is produced in the midst of an impulse from the Efficiency Department of the Trump administration government to reduce spending. Doge, directed by Baron Elon Musk of Tech Tech, has reduced the federal government workforce For more than 62,000 workers only in February.
“We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and in our case team,” Cohen said.
Chun asked Cohen how the FTC situation “will be different in two months” if the agency is “in crisis now, in terms of resources.” Cohen responded by saying that “he cannot guarantee if things will not be even worse.” He pointed out the possibility that the FTC had to move to another office “unexpectedly”, which could hinder its ability to prepare for the trial.
“But there are many reasons to believe … We could have gone through the worst part of it, at least for a while,” Cohen said.
John Hueston, Amazon’s lawyer, disputed Cohen’s request to delay the date of the trial.
“There has been no demonstration about this call that the Government does not have the resources to proceed to trial with the date of the trial as it is currently established,” said Hoston. “What I heard is that they have the entire test team still intact. Maybe there will be an office movement. And, by the way, both in the government and in the private sector, I have never heard that an office movement is more than a few days disruptive.”
The FTC He sued Amazon In June 2023, claiming that the online retailer was cheating millions of clients to register for their main program and sabothe their attempts to cancel it.
“Amazon cheated and caught people so that recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users, but also cost them significant money,” said former FTC president Lina Khan at that time.
The FTC brought a separate case Against Amazon in September 2023 accusing him of wielding an illegal monopoly. The agency alleged that Amazon prevents sellers from offering cheaper prices in other places through their anti -disassession measures. That case is ready to go to trial In October 2026.
In the time elapsed since the FTC presented its cases, Khan has been replaced as head of the FTC by Trump designated Andrew Ferguson. Technology companies, which are the objective of several regulatory agencies, have tried Curry in favor of Trump, including the founder and executive president of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. He attended the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January, and Amazon was among several technological companies in donating $ 1 million to the Trump opening committee.
