More than 1 million advertisers were affected, the suit says. The online retailer says the Federal Trade Commission’s claim “fundamentally misunderstands” how its ads work.
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Amazon sued for inflated ad prices as FTC and 22 states allege hidden surcharges
Amazon’s surcharge scheme faces scrutiny from the FTC and 22 states, who allege that advertising prices were deliberately inflated and hidden from clients. The receipts lay out a system where invisible fees are baked into the cost of visibility. The official line is innovation, but the ledger reads as a premium for opacity. It takes two dozen states and a federal agency to run the audit, and the result is a lawsuit. The walk from the receipts to power is paved with surcharges: the bigger the ad buy, the deeper the pit. The complaint is filed, the defense is pending, the bill is paid by those who want to be seen—plus interest, plus the privilege of not knowing how much. The stakes: the next time you search, the price you see is the one someone else paid to make sure you do.
“Amazon's secret fees for advertisers are so well hidden, it takes the FTC and 22 states to find them. They say it's the free market—if you can afford the surcharge, you get the spot. Everyone else gets to pay for the privilege of being invisible.”
“Well, you know, these surcharges are actually just part of how advertising works in a competitive environment. Amazon provides value, and sometimes that’s not clear upfront, but isn’t that just innovation? I might have said 'hidden,' but really, it’s just complicated.”
The receipts
The Federal Trade Commission and a bipartisan coalition of 22 states sued Amazon on Monday for allegedly misleading advertisers over the past seven years by imposing “hidden surcharges.” The complaint, filed in the Western District of…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.