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Amazon Sued Over Allegedly Inflated Advertising Prices Charged for Years
🇩🇰 Denmark /Technology

Amazon Sued Over Allegedly Inflated Advertising Prices Charged for Years

From Berlingske · () Danish

Translated from Danish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources In the courts
  • The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 22 states sued Amazon, alleging that it manipulated advertising prices and overcharged customers for seven years.
  • The complaint says about 1.2 million advertisers paid more than $20 billion in excess charges, while Amazon called the case misguided and flawed.
  • The lawsuit is the FTC’s third major case against Amazon, which also faces a separate monopoly trial expected to begin early next year.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 22 states have accused Amazon of secretly and systematically charging too much for advertising on its online platform. The alleged overcharging affected about 1.2 million advertising customers over seven years, according to the complaint and accounts cited in the report.

The total overpayment allegedly exceeded $20 billion. Amazon rejected the lawsuit as misguided and flawed, saying the FTC had selected outdated internal documents to support its case.

The FTC is a federal agency responsible for protecting consumers and promoting fair competition. This is its third major lawsuit against Amazon. In September 2025, Amazon agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle allegations that it used deceptive methods to enroll consumers in Amazon Prime and made subscriptions difficult to cancel.

Secretly and systematically overcharged its approximately 1.2 million advertising customers

— U.S. Federal Trade CommissionThe allegation appears in the complaint concerning Amazon’s advertising prices.

Amazon also faces a separate case in which it is accused of unlawfully maintaining an online retail monopoly. A trial in that matter is scheduled to begin early next year, according to AFP.

Amazon generated more than $68 billion in advertising revenue last year and is the world’s third-largest digital advertising provider, AFP reported. Its shares closed down more than 2.5 percent on Monday after the latest lawsuit was announced.

Misguided and flawed

— AmazonAmazon’s description of the FTC lawsuit.
About this summary

Originally published by Berlingske in Danish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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