Media

Bezos’ Amazon Trying to Prevent Bezos’ WaPo From Getting Public Records

FAMILY DIVIDED

The company filed a lawsuit in Washington state seeking to prevent the Post from records it requested.

Jeff Bezos
Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Jeff Bezos’ corporate crown jewel Amazon filed a lawsuit in Washington state to prevent a newspaper from gaining access to its internal records. The newspaper in question? Bezos’ own Washington Post.

Amazon sued the state of Washington on Monday to prevent its Department of Labor from divulging some information about the company’s “Project Kuiper,” its initiative to provide satellite-powered broadband service that has repeatedly been under investigation.

The Post itself is not a defendant in the suit, which was filed in Seattle’s King County Superior Court, according to court records obtained by GeekWire.

A Post spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation. Amazon also declined to comment, citing litigation. The state’s labor department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In November, the Post requested the state provide copies of its “inspection records, investigation notes, interview notes and complaints” that arose from the investigation. The state told Amazon earlier this month it planned to comply with the request and gave the company a chance to oppose the release of any individual records through a court order.

Now, Amazon has followed through, saying parts of the records the paper wants contain “proprietary information” and air out the company’s “trade secrets.”

Amazon also claims the release could even “threaten the confidentiality, integrity, and/or availability of private and public infrastructure and telecommunications networks” and give its competitors an edge. Therefore, the company argued, the state should narrow the release of the records to protect its interests.

“The public’s interest in disclosure of the proprietary records does not override Amazon’s interest in protecting its proprietary information,” it wrote in its lawsuit. “The public at large does not have a prevailing interest in knowing Amazon’s unique methods of conducting business and/or data unique to Project Kuiper except to the extent the public intends to improperly use such information to its economic benefit and to the detriment of Amazon and its investment.”

The state previously said the company wouldn’t be exempt from the records’ release. It comes as Bezos, who remains Amazon’s executive chairman, has had Post employees beg him to intercede on their behalf after he and CEO Will Lewis plunged the paper into financial—and a morale—crisis.

The suit also comes as Bezos himself admitted in October he was a “complexifier” for the Post, though he promised that he wouldn’t prevent the paper from pursuing anything that touched on his own business efforts.

“I challenge you to find one instance in those 11 years where I have prevailed upon anyone at The Post in favor of my own interests,” he wrote in October. “It hasn’t happened.”