The Federal Trade Commission said it will meet the deadlines for its Amazon Prime deceptive practices case, hours after requesting a delay due to resource constraints. An attorney for the federal agency made the about-face Wednesday afternoon, saying he “was wrong.”
“The commission does not have resource constraints and we are fully prepared to litigate this case,” Jonathan Cohen, an attorney for the FTC, wrote in a letter. “Please be assured that the FTC will meet whatever schedule and deadlines the court sets.” The FTC’s unusual reversal comes amid a push by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to reduce spending. DOGE, which is led by tech baron Elon Musk, has slashed the federal government’s workforce by more than 62,000 workers in February alone. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson confirmed that Cohen’s initial delay request was wrong. “I have made it clear since Day One that we will commit the resources necessary for this case,” Ferguson told CNBC. “The Trump-Vance FTC will never back down from taking on Big Tech.” An FTC spokesperson confirmed the agency is no longer requesting a delayed start date for the trial. Amazon declined to comment.
Attorneys for the FTC made the initial delay request during a status hearing earlier on Wednesday before Chun in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Chun had set a Sept. 22 start date for the trial. Earlier Wednesday, Cohen had asked for a two-month continuance on the case due to staffing and budgetary shortfalls. Cohen had said that the FTC “lost employees in the agency, in our division and on our case team.” Chun asked Cohen how the FTC’s situation “will be different in two months” if the agency is “in crisis now, as far as resources.” Cohen responded by saying that he “cannot guarantee if things won’t be even worse.” He pointed to the possibility that the FTC may have to move to another office “unexpectedly,” which could hamper its ability to prepare for the trial. “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. John Hueston, an attorney for Amazon, disputed Cohen’s delay request.
