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SEATTLE–The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has requested a federal court in Seattle to delay a scheduled September trial in its case against Amazon, citing “severe resource shortfalls in terms of both money and personnel.“
The FTC alleges that Amazon misled consumers regarding its Prime subscription service. It claims that Amazon deceived millions of customers into signing up for its Prime program and sabotaged their attempts to cancel it. The company has denied any wrongdoing.
During a hearing on Wednesday, FTC attorney Jonathan Cohen informed U.S. District Judge John Chun that the agency is experiencing a “dire resource situation“ due to cost-cutting measures implemented under former President Donald Trump’s administration and requested a two-month continuance. Chun had scheduled the trial to begin on September 22.
“We have lost employees in the agency, in our division, and on our case team,‘‘ Cohen stated. He further explained that some staff members assigned to the case accepted resignation offers in January, while others have left for unrelated reasons or are scheduled to be on leave during the trial. A hiring freeze has prevented the agency from filling these vacancies.
Chun inquired about how the FTC’s circumstances would change in two months if the agency faced a resource crisis. Cohen replied that he “cannot promise things won’t deteriorate further. He mentioned that the FTC might have to relocate offices “unexpectedly,” which could hinder its trial preparations. “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 said.
Cohen also highlighted new spending restrictions that require FTC attorneys to purchase court proceedings and deposition transcripts on the slowest delivery schedule to minimize costs. This delay in receiving critical documents could impact the agency’s ability to prepare for trial.
Judge Chun requested that the FTC submit a written request outlining its motion to postpone the trial to a later date in the fall.
“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,” said John Hueston, an attorney for Amazon. “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.”
