[Reuters] Amazon duped millions of consumers into enrolling in Prime, US FTC says

papy · September 20, 2023, 11:13pm

Exactly. Shine the light, catch the cockroaches.

So much of the added information is how the FTC only became aware of certain aspects because of whistleblowers and leaks to the media.

Internal documents show Amazon has for years knowingly tricked people into signing up for Prime subscriptions. ‘We have been deliberately confusing,’ former employee says. - Business Insider, March 14, 2022 - Eugene Kim

On March 14, 2022, Business Insider published information leaked from current and former Amazon employees regarding the problems with Amazon’s Prime checkout enrollment flow and the Iliad Flow. The Commission quickly ascertained that Amazon had failed to disclose much of the now-leaked documents and information to the Commission, despite the fact that at least some of it was responsive to the outstanding CID. Amazon withheld the information by identifying combinations of search terms and custodians it knew would not surface the most probative—and inculpatory—material. Among other things, Amazon failed to identify as custodians key individuals who communicated extensively about the Prime enrollment and cancellation processes, including the most knowledgeable employees on these subjects. Amazon also failed to identify as custodians individuals the Business Insider article named as key decision-makers regarding the Nonconsensual Enrollment problem and the Iliad Flow.

In contrast, two of the eight custodians identified by Amazon performed little work germane to the investigation. But for the Business Insider article, Amazon’s failure to identify relevant custodians and search terms may have gone undiscovered.

Pursuant to its reservation of rights, on April 19, 2022, the Commission issued an extensive follow-up demand for additional information. Amazon did not comply with this demand, instead making the incredible claim that doing so would take 30 months.

On June 30, 2022, the Commission issued an additional CID to Amazon as well as CIDs to various current and former employees seeking documents and testimony. Amazon also did not comply with the June 30, 2022 CID.

Instead, on August 5, 2022, Amazon and certain individual CID recipients (including Defendants Lindsay, Ghani, and Grandinetti) petitioned the Commission to quash the June 2022 CIDs. On September 21, 2022, the Commission denied the petition in every material respect. Three Commissioners noted with respect to one legal question Amazon raised as a basis to delay or avoid providing testimony: “The issue raised by this dispute is just one of many challenges facing FTC staff when pursuing complex investigations of targets that may perceive benefits to prolonging discovery.” Although the Commission ordered Amazon and the individual petitioners to fully comply, they did not.

And this is exactly the kind of behavior that leaves too many corporations