FTC sues Amazon for manipulating ad auction prices
Tue, September 1, 2026 at 12:03 AM GMT+3 2 min read
The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon on Monday, alleging the company manipulated its advertising auction systems to overcharge businesses placing ads on its platform, potentially reaping more than $20 billion from the practice, according to CNBC.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and joined by 22 state attorneys general, targets the sponsored products, brands, and display advertisements Amazon sells against search results on its retail site. The FTC and states contend that Amazon's conduct ran afoul of federal and state consumer protection statutes, and the complaint asks the court for civil penalties, restitution, and additional relief.
The agency alleged that Amazon in 2019 changed its auction rules without notifying advertisers by adding an undisclosed surcharge it internally called a "soft reserve price," which raised the minimum price businesses had to pay to win ad placements. Amazon had historically run what it described to advertisers as a "second-price" auction, in which winners pay only the least amount needed to beat competing bids. The FTC alleged that Amazon began entering its own hidden bid into auctions to push prices higher, a practice executives tracked internally and sought to limit outside awareness of, according to the complaint.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon stepped into its ad auctions to push up floor prices somewhere between 70% and 80% of the time in recent years. The FTC also alleged the strategy raised pay-per-click costs by 50% on major shopping days.
"Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices," FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. "These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers."
Amazon called the lawsuit "misguided" and said the complaint "fundamentally misunderstands how advertisers operate," disputing any suggestion that consumers paid more as a result of its ad practices. The company said its auction systems delivered $8 billion in savings to advertisers between 2021 and 2025, and pointed to disclosures about pricing and auction mechanics available within its campaign-management tools.
Amazon ranks behind only Google and Meta in global digital ad revenue, bringing in more than $68 billion from advertising last year.
Monday's lawsuit marks the third major FTC case against Amazon. Amazon paid $2.5 billion last September to settle FTC allegations that it had used deceptive sign-up and cancellation practices in its Prime membership program. Amazon is also expected to go to trial next year in a separate FTC case, joined by 17 states, alleging it used monopoly power to inflate prices and harm third-party sellers — charges Amazon has denied.
Yorumlar (0)
Giriş yaparak yorum yazabilirsin.
İlk yorumu sen yaz.