FTC asks to prolong Amazon High misleading practices case, mentioning staffing shortfalls

The Federal Business Fee requested a pass judgement on in Seattle to prolong the beginning of its trial accusing Amazon of duping shoppers into signing up for its High program, mentioning useful resource constraints.

Lawyers for the FTC made the request all through a situation listening to on Wednesday prior to Pass judgement on John Chun within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Western District of Washington. Chun had poised a Sept. 22 get started moment for the trial.

Jonathan Cohen, an lawyer for the FTC, requested Chun for a two-month continuance at the case because of staffing and budgetary shortfalls.

The FTC’s request to prolong because of staffing constraints comes amid a push by means of the Trump management’s Section of Govt Potency to release spending. DOGE, which is led by means of tech baron Elon Musk, has slashed the government’s personnel by means of greater than 62,000 employees in February unwanted.

“We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on our case team,” Cohen mentioned.

Chun requested Cohen how the FTC’s status “will be different in two months” if the company is “in crisis now, as far as resources.” Cohen replied by means of pronouncing that he “cannot guarantee if things won’t be even worse.” He pointed to the likelihood that the FTC could have to proceed to every other administrative center “unexpectedly,” which might impede its talent to organize for the trial.

“But there’s a lot of reason to believe … we may have been through the brunt of it, at least for a little while,” Cohen mentioned.

John Hueston, an lawyer for Amazon, disputed Cohen’s request to ward off the trial moment.

“There has been no showing on this call that the government does not have the resources to proceed to trial with the trial date as presently set,” Hueston mentioned. “What I heard is that they’ve got the whole trial team still intact. Maybe there’s going to be an office move. And by the way, both in government and private sector, I’ve never heard of an office move being more than a few days disruptive.”

The FTC sued Amazon in June 2023, alleging that the net store used to be deceiving thousands and thousands of shoppers into signing up for its High program and sabotaging their makes an attempt to prohibit it.

“Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” former FTC Chair Lina Khan mentioned on the presen.

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