Feds and 22 states sue Amazon, alleging deceptive advertising scheme

Filed 1h ago · Via Stateline · The Buffoon Desk

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Bushwick Tarantella Loop

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The FTC and attorneys general from 22 states sued Amazon Monday, alleging the company used an 'invented auction participant' to inflate advertising costs for more than a million brands and sellers over seven years, generating tens of billions of dollars.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said millions of advertisers were misled into paying inflated prices that were largely passed on to consumers, and the coalition is seeking civil penalties, restitution and injunctive relief.

Amazon responded that the FTC 'fundamentally misunderstands how advertisers operate,' arguing its 'soft reserve prices' matched relevant bids rather than merely the highest one, and noted average cost-per-click stayed flat, adjusted for inflation, from 2019 to 2024.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Amazon reviewing 1.5 million pages to conclude the FTC's claims are patently false is the kind of statistic that impresses no one except whoever wrote the blog post. If the auction was fair, a fake bidder invented from nowhere is an odd thing to have needed.

Source: Read the original at Stateline → Scored: Bushwick Tarantella Loop · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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