The FTC is concerned that evidence related to its massive lawsuit with Amazon has been lost and that Jeff Bezos was a ‘heavy user’ of the Signal app.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims top Amazon executives used the disappearing message feature of Signal to delete potential evidence related to its ongoing antitrust lawsuit.
The FTC claim these executives – including founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos – have used Signal for years to discuss sensitive business matters “including antitrust”. These executives allegedly used Signals’ disappearing messages feature which “irrevocably destroys messages”, even after the company was informed that the FTC was investigating the company.
The larger lawsuit claims Amazon uses a mix of “anticompetitive and unfair strategies” to illegally maintain monopoly power. This complaint alleges that Amazon’s practices prevent competitors from growing and stops new ones from emerging.
The FTC claims Amazon executives deleted many Signal messages during its “pre-complaint investigation” and that the tech giant did not instruct its employees to preserve Signal messages until more than fifteen months after Amazon knew the investigation was underway.
The FTC filing contains an alleged screenshot of two Amazon executives quickly turning on Signal’s disappearing messages feature once they began communicating on it in 2019. One executive says “are you feeling encrypted” before the feature is activated.
“It is highly likely that relevant information has been destroyed as a result of Amazon’s actions and inactions,” the FTC’s lawyers said in a filing. “Plaintiffs should be allowed discovery into Amazon’s document preservation efforts (or the lack thereof) so that they can determine the full extent of the possible spoliation.”
The FTC claims public reporting “corroborates” that Amazon executives used Signal to discuss antitrust issues and that the company “did not take timely steps” to preserve Signal messages.
The US agency also claims Bezos was a “heavy Signal user” who instructed other employees to use the app. Other executives who allegedly used Signal include CEO Andy Jassy, general counsel David Zapolsky and former CEO of worldwide operations Dave Clark.
“These executives played key roles in developing and implementing Amazon’s anti-discounting and fulfilment strategies that are at issue in this case,” the FTC said.
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