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The US Federal Trade Commission has backtracked on a request to delay the trial in its high-profile case challenging Amazon’s Prime service, rejecting its own lawyer’s claim of resource constraints.
An FTC lawyer on Wednesday asked a judge in a Seattle federal court to delay the start of the trial scheduled for September due to “extremely severe resource shortfall in terms of money and personnel,” according to US media reports.
“The resource constraints are severe and really unique to this moment,” the lawyer added, only to reverse course mere hours later with a letter saying he was “wrong”, that the US regulator was “fully prepared to litigate the case” and would “meet whatever schedule and deadlines the court sets”.
The volte-face comes as the US civil service has been hit hard by efforts to slash bureaucracy and government spending spearheaded by Elon Musk, whom US President Donald Trump has picked to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). The Trump administration in its first few months has rushed to lay off government workers and has sought to shut down entire federal agencies.
Following the court hearing, FTC chair Andrew Ferguson said in a statement to the Financial Times that the agency’s lawyer was “wrong” and renewed his pledge to clamp down on Big Tech’s anti-competitive conduct.
“I have made it clear since day one that we will commit the resources necessary for this case,” Ferguson said. “The Trump-Vance FTC will never back down from taking on Big Tech,” he said, referring to vice-president JD Vance.
Antitrust officials appointed by Trump, including Ferguson and Gail Slater, head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, have signalled they will adopt a tough enforcement stance, including against the technology sector — a move that would sustain the competition policy pursued by their progressive predecessors during the Biden administration.
In a lawsuit filed in June 2023, the FTC alleged that Amazon used “dark patterns” and deceptive design tactics to steer users to enrol in its Prime subscription service without their consent. It alleged that the company also complicated the cancellation process for subscribers who sought to end their membership.
Several months later, the agency filed a separate lawsuit claiming that Amazon runs a monopoly that seeks to “inflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation”. This case is scheduled for trial in October 2026.
Both FTC cases were brought by former chair Lina Khan, a Biden appointee, who came to public prominence as a 27-year-old with a now- famous paper in 2017 about the monopolistic risks posed by Amazon.
After the FTC filed its lawsuits, the ecommerce giant said the commission’s approach reflected a “fundamental misunderstanding of retail” and that if the agency was successful it would undermine efforts to lower prices for consumers.
“We fundamentally disagree with the FTC’s allegations — which are in many cases wrong or misleading — and with their overreaching and misguided approach to antitrust,” said David Zapolsky, the company’s chief legal officer, in 2023.
Amazon declined to comment on Wednesday’s hearing.
