Meanwhile, Amazon is pushing back on the FTC’s demands in the latest filing.
‘Staff’s handling of this investigation has been unusual and perplexing,’ Amazon says in the petition.
Readying founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy to testify on ‘granular’ details would be a ‘tremendous burden’ on the company — which asked regulators for more time to provide the required information.
The FTC, which has multiple tech firms in its sights, has extended its probe of Amazon to its ebook service Kindle Unlimited and music streaming platform Amazon Music. This probe is being led by the consumer-protection division and is separate from the antitrust probe of Amazon. In June 2021, the Seattle-based company called on Khan to recuse herself from the investigation because of her previous academic work on antitrust matters and criticism of the ecommerce giant.
Jamil Ghani, VP of Amazon Prime, said in a previous statement to Insider: ‘Customer transparency and trust are top priorities for us. By design we make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up for or cancel their Prime membership. We continually listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the customer experience.’
Executives in addition to Bezos and Jassy who were served with subpoenas included Doug Herrington, Amazon’s head of retail, Russell Grandinetti, head of international consumer, as well as former executives Dave Clark, who had been head of worldwide consumer, and Greg Greeley, ex-head of Prime.
DailyMail.com reached out to Amazon for comment.
‘Amazon Prime’s subscription model is a ‘roach motel,’ where getting in is almost effortless, but escape is an ordeal,’ a 2021 letter from seven groups led by Public Citizen states