NC AG sues Amazon over alleged ad auction rigging, $20B in illegal charges
PaulYacoubian · x · 2026-09-01
North Carolina AG Jeff Jackson announced a lawsuit against Amazon over an alleged vast ad-rigging scheme, accusing the company of illegally collecting over $20 billion in extra charges.
The core claim: Amazon runs second-price auctions for "Sponsored product" slots, where the winner should pay just above the second-highest bid. The state alleges Amazon secretly inflated the second-place price after seeing bids to charge winners more.
Internal documents reportedly show Amazon tested how much it could raise hidden charges without advertisers noticing, then gradually increased them — a concealment-based strategy.
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