Amazon Fires Back After FTC Claims Its Hidden Reserve Price Auctions Inflate Ad Costs

Amazon's Unknowable Ad Auction: FTC Alleges $20 Billion Secret Surcharge While Company Claims Opacity Defends It

The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states filed suit against Amazon on August 31, 2026. They accuse the company of secretly altering its advertising auctions for years. The result? Advertisers paid more. Consumers faced higher prices. And Amazon pocketed billions. At stake sits Amazon’s massive ad business. It generated $19.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026 alone. Up 26 percent from the prior year. The FTC press release estimates the sche…

Regulators rewrote the ad auction rules and left the owners alone

Google kept AdX, the FTC sued Amazon over hidden ad surcharges and The Trade Desk cut 575 jobs, in a week when regulators changed the rules but not the owners.

Feds and 22 states sue Amazon, alleging deceptive advertising scheme

The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from 22 states sued Amazon Monday, claiming the online retail company used artificial bids to inflate costs for advertisers, bringing in tens of billions of dollars. The complaint alleges that Amazon used an “invented auction participant” to drive up prices for advertising placements and sponsored product spots on […]

Amazon's answer to the FTC is that the auction is unknowable

The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states sued Amazon in Seattle on 31 August, alleging it inflated auction prices for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, and generated more than $20bn in additional advertising costs since 2019. As CNBC reported, regulators say 1.2 million advertisers were affected, including more than 500,000 small and medium businesses. […] This story continues at The Next Web

Amazon Fires Back After FTC Claims Its Hidden Reserve Price Auctions Inflate Ad Costs

FTC alleges Amazon's reserve-price ad auction system inflates ad costs, a claim Amazon denies. Yet courts have sided with regulators in recent Google AdTech rulings.

Attorney General Raoul Joins FTC In Filing Lawsuit Against Amazon Over Secret Ad Surcharge Scheme – RiverBender (Alton)

The complaint alleges that Amazon’s scheme has likely illegally generated tens of billions of dollars of revenue for the company by, for example, substantially increasing the prices charged to advertising customers on ordinary shopping days and applying far greater increases to prices on high-volume shopping days such as Prime Day and Black Friday.