{"id":6292,"date":"2026-08-31T21:42:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2026-08-31T21:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:42:29","slug":"amazon-advertising-prices-ftc-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6292","title":{"rendered":"FTC lawsuit alleges Amazon has been \u2018secretly and systematically\u2019 overcharging for ads"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon<\/a> for allegedly using a \u201csecret ad surcharge\u201d to drive up prices for ads on its website and app. FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson claims in a blog post on the lawsuit that the higher advertising prices \u201cwere largely passed on to American consumers.\u201d According to the complaint<\/a>, Amazon violated the FTC Act and over a dozen state laws. This lawsuit comes almost a year after Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle an earlier FTC lawsuit<\/a> over Prime subscription practices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Amazon\u2019s \u201csecond price\u201d auctions for ads on its platform, the winning bidder is supposed to only pay one cent more than the second-highest bidder. However, the FTC\u2019s complaint alleges that Amazon has been \u201cmanipulating\u201d the auctions since 2019:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Amazon\u2019s advertising organization (\u201cAmazon Ads\u201d) decided to set and charge customers higher prices for advertising placements itself. After Amazon runs its ad auctions and determines the winning and second-place bidders, it then replaces the price determined by the auction with a higher price designed to maximize Amazon\u2019s profits and decrease the cost efficiency of its advertisers\u2019 campaigns. As explained internally by Amazon\u2019s Senior Vice President in charge of Amazon Ads, in Amazon\u2019s auctions \u201cthe second price isn\u2019t set by an actual bidder, but rather by\u201d Amazon in the form of a \u201cproxy 2nd price that we calculate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon for allegedly using a \u201csecret ad surcharge\u201d to drive up prices for ads on its website and app. FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson claims in a blog post on the lawsuit that the higher advertising prices \u201cwere largely passed on to American consumers.\u201d According to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[383,135,46,74,34],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-amazon","tag-business","tag-news","tag-policy","tag-tech"],"yoast_head":"\nFTC lawsuit alleges Amazon has been \u2018secretly and systematically\u2019 overcharging for ads - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The FTC and 22 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Amazon claiming it used a \u201csecret\u201d surcharge to push up its advertising prices.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=6292\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FTC lawsuit alleges Amazon has been \u2018secretly and systematically\u2019 overcharging for ads - 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