Amazon hid documents calling Jeff Bezos ‘Chief Dark Arts Officer’ and ‘Shady’ Prime tactics, US FTC claims

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accused Amazon of attempting to hide incriminating evidence in the antitrust suit, a report claims. The FTC states that Amazon systematically filed misleading privilege claims for the same. After a federal judge ordered a re-review, Amazon reportedly withdrew 92% of its privilege claims and produced nearly 70,000 documents that were previously shielded. A significant portion of these, around 58,000 documents, were initially fully withheld from the court, the report adds. For instance, in one document, the current CEO of Amazon's retail business described “(Prime) subscription driving” as “a bit of a shady world.” In that context, this CEO reportedly referred to Amazon founder (former CEO) Jeff Bezos as Amazon’s “chief dark arts officer,” according to the FTC.During an in-camera review of nine withheld documents, the court found only a single sentence was privileged, according to the FTC. The FTC asserts that the documents were withheld for reasons unrelated to privilege, containing “probative, inculpatory, and entirely nonprivileged statements,” a report by the Courthouse News Service noted.“In essence, Amazon’s privilege log — on which the FTC has relied throughout discovery — was almost entirely wrong. It is impossible to square a 92% error rate across tens of thousands of documents with a mere mistake,” FTC wrote in the motion (as seen by the Courthouse News Service).An Amazon spokesperson stated that the comment originated from notes taken during “a much longer conversation that included discussion about non-Amazon subscription programs.”“The way Amazon drives Prime subscribers is by making the service useful and valuable. It is correct that an element of driving that value is an art rather than a science,” the spokesperson said.FTC cited these internal documents to allege that involuntary Prime enrollments were so common by 2018 that Amazon created a clearer sign‑up page for shoppers prone to accidentally subscribing. Federal regulators accuse the company of deliberately withholding nonprivileged documents, as the redactions reveal that Amazon’s attorneys reviewed and consciously chose to block these materials.In September 2023, the FTC and the attorneys general of 17 US states (later joined by Vermont and Puerto Rico) sued Amazon, alleging that the company used deceptive practices in its Prime subscription program, raised prices, manipulated search results to favour paid ads and its products and overcharged third‑party sellers to strengthen its market dominance.