Judge unsealed documents that reveal that Amazon was pressured to lie by the FTC.
As the ongoing battle over the proposed Staples/Office Depot merger rages on, the presiding judge has unveiled a new wrinkle in the case. Last week, he unsealed documents that demonstrate that Amazon was pressured by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to testify that they would not be ready to launch its business-supplies business until 2017, even though they have already entered the market, according to Fortune.
Staples and Office Depot CEOs also issued an open letter to customers recently that condemned the FTC for taking action to block the proposed merger between the two companies. The FTC has argued that the proposal would violate federal anti-trust laws by “substantially reducing competition in the retail sale of supplies by office supply superstores” across the country, Innovative Retail Technologies reported.
Apparently, the FTC is willing to go to any lengths to ensure that the merger does not happen. In fact, the CEOs asserted in their recent letter that rising competition from Amazon represents the “disruptive effects of the digital economy” on the office supplies space, which the FTC has failed to consider. The unsealed documents reveal that not only was the FTC aware of Amazon’s competition, they actively worked to cover up its influence in order to prevent the proposed merger from becoming a reality.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who presides over Washington D.C., unsealed those sections of the proceedings that revealed this unsuccessful FTC attempt to get an Amazon executive to perjure himself. Judge Sullivan questioned Prentis Wilson, vice president of Amazon Business personally regarding the incident.
“The public ought to know that the government wanted Amazon to say some things that weren’t true,” Emmet Sullivan, U.S. District Judge for Washington, D.C., said, according to the court transcript unsealed Thursday.
Bloomberg reported that one FTC lawyer told the judge that it “never asked” Amazon to say anything “that wasn’t true,” denying that the agency pressured anyone to commit perjury.
The FTC has been vehemently opposing the proposed merger, citing a lack of competition in business-contracts supplies business as a result. But this time the FTC may have overstepped its bounds.
