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FTC sues Amazon over alleged secret ad-auction surcharge

The FTC and 22 state attorneys general allege Amazon secretly replaced its second-price ad auction results with a higher, profit-maximizing price since 2019, extracting over 20 billion dollars from advertisers. Amazon calls the claims misguided.

Why it matters. Advertisers relying on Amazon's second-price auction as a fair-value benchmark now have federal grounds to question whether their reported ad costs reflect real market bidding.

Based on reporting by reuters.com — Greg Bensinger · cnbc.com — Annie Palmer · theverge.com — Stevie Bonifield · thewrap.com — JD Knapp.

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