The Federal Trade Commission wants Amazon to find executives that use disappearing messaging apps to talk about things like Prime program enrollment and cancellation processes.
As first reported by Insider’s Eugene Kim, the agency is seeking to find out if Amazon uses misleading tactics to get customers signed up — and remain subscribed to — its pinwheel of membership services, including Prime, Audible, Amazon Music, and other programs.
The FTC wants Amazon to create a log of those disappearing, or “ephemeral,” messages from executives. It also wants the company to identify the number of shoppers who became “nonconsensual enrollees” and “diverted cancels” across various services.
The agency is trying to identify if Amazon specifically used so-called dark patterns, tech-speak for deceptive designs intended to trick consumers into doing things.
Insider’s Eugene Kim reported in March that Amazon execs and employees had long been concerned that customers were feeling tricked into signing up for Prime, which can cost $139 a year or $14.99 a month. However, they chose not to use clearer language around sign-ups because they didn’t want to company’s subscription business to slow down.
Amazon disclosed the FTC’s order in a recent filing petitioning the agency to limit subpoenas sent to employees as part of its probe into Prime and other aspects of the company’s business. The FTC first launched its Prime probe in March 2021, per the filing.
Amazon is alleging that the FTC is making unreasonable demands and that its actions “harass Amazon’s highest-ranking executives” like founder Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy, both of whom were subpoenaed as part of the probe.
Amazon is not a fan of the leader of the FTC, Lina Khan. She’s a longtime vocal big tech critic, specifically of Amazon — she grew to prominence in part due to a 2017 paper titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” detailing how the company evaded scrutiny.