What happened. On 31 August the FTC and 22 state attorneys general sued Amazon. They allege that since 2019 Amazon has added a charge to its ad auctions, called a “soft reserve price” in its internal messages and never disclosed to advertisers. The FTC’s curve is striking: the share of auctions in which advertisers paid their full bid rose from 30-40 per cent in 2021 to about 80 per cent in 2024. More than a million brands and sellers are affected. Amazon calls the suit misguided. Two days later, on 2 September, Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected the Justice Department’s request to force Google to sell its AdX exchange, and instead accepted most of the behavioural remedies with modifications. The reasoned decision is sealed.
The bigger picture. Regulators are forcing the giants to be visible rather than breaking them up. It looks like the cheaper penalty, but for the operator it is the heavier load: you break a company up once, but you force it to be visible every day. In 2001 Microsoft also escaped a break-up and had to open its protocols in return. Advertising’s three giants, Google, Amazon and Meta, both build the auction and play in it. The fight ahead is over who gets to see inside it.
For executives: If there is a line on your platform invoice you cannot see, it may be being taken from you. In contracts with the big platforms, put access to auction data and audit rights on the table.