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.