FTC Claims Amazon Pocketed Over $20 Billion By ‘Manipulating’ Its Ad Auctions

The lawsuit, which includes 22 U.S. state attorneys general, alleges that Amazon overcharged 1.2 million advertisers using auction rules for how ads are bought and sold, receiving more than $20 billion from these practices since 2019.

“Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices,” said FTC chairman Andrew N. Ferguson in a statement. “These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers. The FTC under President Trump won’t allow this deception to continue.”

The complaint focuses on Amazon’s ad auction, which is used to set prices on its platform.