HARRISBURG – Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that his office, along with 21 other attorneys general, has joined a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission against Amazon.com, Inc., regarding alleged deceptive and unfair practices that secretly inflated prices in its auctions for advertisements on Amazon’s website and app.
The complaint alleges that, for over seven years, Amazon has covertly and substantially increased the prices that more than one million brands and sellers — including small businesses and sellers in Pennsylvania — were required to pay to advertise on its platform.
As a result, the complaint alleges, Amazon’s scheme has likely illegally obtained tens of billions of dollars from its unwitting advertising customers.
“Amazon secretly raised prices in auctions for advertisements on their website, preying on smaller businesses on tight budgets,” Attorney General Sunday said. “We are hopeful that this lawsuit will provide restitution and relief for businesses purchasing ads on Amazon, and in turn, keep prices down for consumers.”
These digital advertisements at issue are used by advertisers, including over 14,000 independent sellers in Pennsylvania that sell more than 100 million items a year on Amazon such as groceries, clothing, and other essential items. Among other allegations, Amazon overrides and replaces the actual auction results with higher prices set by Amazon to increase the ad prices so as to increase Amazon’s profits.
In these auctions, prospective advertisers bid to place Sponsored Product ads, Sponsored Brands ads and Display Ads alongside the results that appear when a consumer searches for a product using a keyword on Amazon’s store. Placements are auctioned to the highest-ranked bidder for each keyword.
The complaint further alleges that Amazon intentionally concealed its actions from advertisers and that advertisers were substantially overcharged in the form of fees and surcharges, which were ultimately passed down to shoppers in the form of higher prices.
The lawsuit seeks restitution, penalties, costs, and an injunction against Amazon for alleged violations of Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.
The case was filed on August 31, 2026, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Pennsylvania is joined in this effort by the FTC, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Washington.
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