Lauren Feiner is a elder argumentation newsman astatine The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech argumentation astatine CNBC, penning astir antitrust, privacy, and contented moderation reform.
Attorneys astatine the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asked a national judge Wednesday to hold its user protection proceedings against Amazon by 2 months, saying that staffing losses and a imaginable agency move could inhibit its expertise to prepare.
“We person mislaid labor successful the agency, successful our section and connected our lawsuit team,” FTC lawyer Jonathan Cohen said astatine a position proceeding successful Washington, according to CNBC. Cohen besides warned that a imaginable abrupt agency move for the agency could disrupt its preparation, CNBC reports.
The FTC precocious terminated astir a twelve probationary staffers, The Verge first reported. It’s truthful acold been spared from immoderate of the wider cuts fueled by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which person occurred astatine agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Education. FTC unit were precocious told by DOGE they’d request to move to an agency it cleared retired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) successful the coming months, Bloomberg reported.
Responding to Judge John Chun’s mobility astir really the FTC’s assets rumor “will beryllium different successful 2 months,” Cohen acknowledged he “cannot guarantee if things won’t beryllium moreover worse,” CNBC reports. “But there’s a batch of logic to judge ... we whitethorn person been done the brunt of it, astatine slightest for a small while.”
The FTC filed suit against Amazon successful June 2023, nether the erstwhile Democratic chair Lina Khan. The agency alleged that Amazon utilized creation tricks known arsenic acheronian patterns to deceive millions of customers into signing up for its Prime subscription, and made it difficult to unsubscribe. Under Khan, the FTC besides separately filed an antitrust complaint against Amazon. Both those cases are now nether the stewardship of the caller Republican FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, who’s signaled some loyalty toward President Trump and his policies, and combativeness toward Big Tech. Amazon laminitis and executive president Jeff Bezos has precocious cozied up to Trump, attending his inauguration alongside different tech CEOs aft Amazon gave $1 cardinal to his inauguration fund.
The Amazon Prime proceedings was initially scheduled to statesman connected September 22nd. John Hueston, arguing connected Amazon’s behalf, reportedly pushed backmost connected the FTC’s effort to hold the trial, saying that the authorities hasn’t shown that it doesn’t person the resources to proceed arsenic scheduled. “What I heard is that they’ve sewage the full proceedings squad still intact. Maybe there’s going to beryllium an agency move,” Hueston said, arsenic reported by CNBC. “And by the way, some successful authorities and backstage sector, I’ve ne'er heard of an agency move being much than a fewer days disruptive.”
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