FTC, 22 states sue Amazon over e-commerce advertising practices
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general today sued Amazon.com Inc. over its practices in the online advertising market.
The e-commerce giant pushed back against the complaint in a lengthy statement.
Amazon entered the online advertising market in 2008 with a service called Product Ads. It enabled merchants to promote their products in the search engine built into the company’s e-commerce platform. Today, Amazon is the world’s third-largest online advertising provider behind Google LLC and Meta Platforms Inc.
The FTC lawsuit focuses on three of the company’s advertising offerings. The first, Sponsored Products, enables merchants to run ads for specific items in Amazon search results. The second service is called Sponsored Brands and makes it possible to promote multiple products in a single ad. Lastly, the complaint flags a service called Sponsored Display. It distributes ads across not only Amazon properties but also external websites.
