The Federal Trade Commission, joined by attorneys general from 22 states, has filed suit against Amazon alleging it secretly altered its ad auction system starting in 2019 to charge advertisers more than they were told. The complaint claims Amazon added an undisclosed 'soft reserve price' and even used a fictitious bidder to drive up costs, despite marketing its system as a fair second-price auction. Regulators estimate the practice may have extracted over $20 billion from advertisers since 2019.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-08-31
The FTC and 22 state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon of concealing surcharges within its advertising auctions for more than six years, allegedly extracting over $20 billion from advertisers who didn't know they were paying inflated rates. Internal documents cited in the suit reportedly show employees flagged the pricing tactic as risky for long-term trust even as it boosted short-term revenue. Amazon has pushed back, saying the suit misrepresents its ad auction mechanics and lacks evidence that consumers paid more as a result.
engadget.com
· 2026-08-31
The FTC and a bipartisan coalition of 22 states have sued Amazon, claiming it secretly manipulated its advertising auctions to charge advertisers more than they should have paid under the stated 'second price' bidding rules. The complaint alleges Amazon pocketed roughly $20 billion since 2019 by making Sponsored Products advertisers pay their full winning bid nearly 80% of the time instead of one cent above the next-highest bid. Amazon has called the lawsuit 'misguided' and denies misleading advertisers or consumers.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-08-31
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by 22 states, filed suit against Amazon on Monday alleging the company secretly inflated prices in its Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Display ad auctions for more than seven years. The complaint says Amazon told over 500,000 small and medium businesses they'd pay just a penny above the next-highest bid in a 'second-price' auction, but from 2019 quietly inserted a hidden 'soft reserve price' using a fabricated bidder to push winning advertisers to pay their full bid instead.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-31
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by 22 state attorneys general, filed suit against Amazon alleging it covertly altered its ad auction rules starting in 2019 to overcharge advertisers by more than $20 billion. The complaint targets Amazon's sponsored products, brand, and display ads, claiming the company misrepresented its 'second-price' auction system while quietly adding surcharges. Amazon has rejected the allegations, calling the lawsuit misguided and saying its auction changes actually saved advertisers billions.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-31
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by more than 20 states, plans to file a lawsuit against Amazon alleging it deceived advertisers by manipulating ad pricing on its retail platform. The suit reportedly claims Amazon generated billions of dollars through this practice.
wsj.com
· 2026-08-31
ZDNET has published a roundup of discounts on streaming hardware ahead of Labor Day 2026, highlighting a Fire TV Stick priced at $20 alongside other markdowns on streaming devices. The list is compiled from vendor and retailer listings plus independent testing and customer feedback rather than a single retailer's sale event.
zdnet.com
· 2026-08-31
The FTC, joined by attorneys general from 22 states, filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon of quietly inflating prices in its ad auctions since 2019. Instead of letting the winning bidder pay one cent above the second-highest bid as its auction system promises, the complaint alleges Amazon substituted a higher, internally calculated 'proxy' price to boost its own profits. Regulators estimate this scheme extracted more than $20 billion from advertisers, costs they say were largely pushed onto consumers—an allegation Amazon disputes, calling the suit misguided.
theverge.com
· 2026-08-31
President Trump posted on Truth Social criticizing the growing local opposition to AI data center construction across the U.S., arguing that communities rejecting these projects are choosing poverty and stagnation over prosperity. He also claimed that China benefits from the anti-data-center sentiment spreading through American towns and cities.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-08-31
VideoLAN's free, open-source VLC media player has now been downloaded more than 7 billion times across all platforms, according to an update from president and lead developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf. The milestone comes roughly 18 months after VLC passed 6 billion downloads in January 2025. VideoLAN also confirmed it has ported VLC to Amazon's new Vega OS for TVs and continues developing broader platform and codec support.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-31
Amazon has cut the price of Sony's WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones by half, marking the steepest discount seen for the model to date. The deal covers the flagship over-ear headphones known for their active noise cancellation and long battery life.
zdnet.com
· 2026-08-31
Amazon is selling SanDisk's 256GB microSD Express Card for $58.99, down 16% from its $69.99 list price. The card uses a PCIe/NVMe interface rather than standard UHS-I, enabling faster load times and support for high-bitrate video capture, while still remaining backward-compatible with older UHS-I devices.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-08-31
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