The US Federal Trade Commission, joined by 22 states, has sued Amazon over claims it secretly inflated advertising rates for more than six years, deceiving companies that paid to place ads on its platform. The lawsuit alleges Amazon added hidden surcharges to its ad auctions, causing advertisers to unknowingly overpay for sponsored product placements, and that the deception continues today. Regulators say the practice was known internally, with multiple employees flagging concerns, and argue it ultimately drove up prices for American consumers.

The FTC claims the alleged scheme has extracted more than $20 billion (£16 billion) from unwitting advertisers since 2019. Court documents cite internal Amazon memos, including one acknowledging that undisclosed reserve prices boosted short-term revenue but risked long-term harm. Amazon has strongly rejected the allegations, saying the FTC's case "cites no evidence of consumer price increases" and misunderstands how ad auctions work, adding that regulators reviewed 1.5 million pages of documents but relied on a handful of simplified communications to allege a "companywide" deception effort, which it called "patently false".