FTC claims that it cannot conduct Amazon cases due to cuts in Doge and then change its mind
Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission claimed that it was impossible to file a lawsuit against Amazon due to large resources and budget cuts from the Elon Musk government’s efficiency ministry. However, in a strange reversal, the company withdraws its previous statement, claiming that the FTC does indeed have the resources to continue the case.
The trial case in question involves what Amazon calls manipulation to sign up users to subscribe. At a hearing Wednesday, FTC’s attorney Jonathan Cohen asked U.S. District Judge John Chun to postpone the trial until September due to the agency’s shortage of resources and staff, Bloomberg reported.
“We lost staff in the agency, department and case team,” Cohen told the judge. Cohen further said the agency was so tied up that it “maybe unable to buy transcripts from Wednesday’s hearing.”
Statement followed by Announced Doge has cancelled approximately 200,000 government credit cards across the federal government, severely limiting the spending these agencies can enact.
However, shortly after the hearing, the lawyer returned to the court and claimed he was misunderstood. “I was wrong,” Cohen said. “The committee has no resource restrictions and we are ready to litigate the case,” the attorney relay said. “Rest assured that the FTC will meet any schedule set by the court and set its deadline.”
Amazon rejected the government’s not prepared for the case. “In this call, there is no indication that the government has no resources to conduct a trial on the trial date set currently,” said John Hueston, an attorney for the company. “What I heard is that they have the entire trial team still intact. Maybe there will be an office move. By the way, in the government and the private sector, I have never heard of an office move for more than a few days.”
It’s not clear what’s going on here, though it feels like another day for President Trump 2.0, and it’s an area where things are happening all the time. Gizmodo contacted the FTC to determine the situation and if it responded, it would update this story.
