Amazon Ads and the FTC
What our reporting found
The FTC and a group of states say Amazon raised the price floor in up to 80% of its ad auctions and told advertisers it was competition. Amazon's own rebuttal describes the mechanism, so what is left is whether a bid meant what Amazon let 1.2 million advertisers believe it meant. A month after the suit, Amazon folded its DSP into an AI agent that picks channels, audiences and bids, then grades the results itself.
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Every story on Amazon Ads and the FTC
4 stories, newest first- Amazon Promised Full Control. Its Agent Won't Let You Pick An Audience.
Amazon retired the DSP name, not the DSP. It folded the engine into an AI agent that now picks your channels, your audiences and your bids, then grades the results itself, one month after the FTC accused it of rigging its own auction floor.
- Special Report: Amazon Says No One Paid Over Their Bid. The FTC Says 80% Paid Every Cent.
The mechanism is no longer in dispute. Amazon described it in its own rebuttal. What is left is whether a bid meant what Amazon let 1.2 million advertisers believe it meant.
- Breaking: Amazon Told Advertisers Its Ads Clear at Auction. The FTC Says Amazon Was the Other Bidder.
The government says Amazon raised the floor in up to 80% of its ad auctions and told advertisers it was competition. The advertisers paid tens of billions for the privilege.
- Amazon Calls It Fraud. Forrester Is About to Call It an Audience.
On a podcast, a Forrester principal analyst said the firm is publishing predictions on how to persuade non-human traffic to recommend you. Then he admitted nobody knows what to count, and named a new metric on the spot.
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