The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon over claims it secretly overcharged advertisers.
The lawsuit, filed jointly by the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of 22 states, accuses Amazon of charging advertisers more than they were told they would pay, starting in 2019. The complaint says the company kept the practice hidden from the advertisers footing the bill. According to the filing, the alleged deception "continues to this day," meaning regulators believe Amazon never stopped. The suit as reported does not specify a total dollar figure tied to the alleged overcharges.
Amazon's ad business has become central to how the company makes money, well beyond fees on individual sales. That is exactly why pricing transparency matters here: a self-serve auction only works if advertisers can trust that the numbers they are bidding against are the real ones.
Advertisers will not get restitution just because a headline says "secretly." That word is doing a lot of work until a court decides what Amazon actually disclosed, and when.