The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon for allegedly using a “secret ad surcharge” 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 “were largely passed on to American consumers.” According to the complaint, 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 over Prime subscription practices.
In Amazon’s “second price” auctions for ads on its platform, the winning bidder is supposed to only pay one cent more tha …
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