FTC, 22 states sue Amazon over advertising surcharges

Filed 2h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

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Evil Plan

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Baker, Cornelia, 1855- · No restrictions · via Wikimedia Commons

The FTC and 22 states sued Amazon Monday, alleging the company secretly inflated prices in its online advertising auctions for over a million brands and sellers over seven years, pocketing an estimated $20 billion in the process. The complaint says Amazon added an undisclosed surcharge on top of the standard second-price auction model, meaning winning bidders paid more than the rules said they should.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Amazon went to 'great lengths to conceal the unlawful scheme' and, when businesses complained about high 2021 holiday-season ad costs, blamed shopper demand rather than its own pricing tweak — then reportedly raised prices further ahead of subsequent peak shopping days. The coalition is seeking a permanent injunction plus civil penalties, restitution, and disgorgement.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Twenty-two states and the federal government needed a 181-page complaint to describe what is, in plain terms, a vending machine that quietly charges more than the price on the button. The genuinely impressive part isn't the alleged scheme itself but the seven years it apparently took anyone with subpoena power to notice.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Evil Plan · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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