FTC Files Lawsuit Alleging Amazon Deceived Advertisers

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com alleging that the e-commerce giant manipulated prices businesses paid to advertise on its retail platform, reaping tens of billions of dollars for itself over seven years. The lawsuit, joined by a bipartisan group of more than 20 state attorneys general, alleged that Amazon deceived advertisers by secretly raising the minimum price advertisers had to pay to place ads promoting their products. The case, filed in a Seattle federal court, becomes the consumer-protection agency’s third major case against Amazon, which agreed to pay $2.5 billion in 2025 to settle an earlier suit alleging it tricked people into signing up for its Prime service and made it hard to cancel the subscription. Another lawsuit alleging that Amazon engaged in illegal monopolization is headed for trial next year.