Aug 31 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued Amazon.com, with more than 20 U.S. states joining the lawsuit, according to court records.
The agency planned to file a lawsuit, alleging Amazon manipulated prices for advertisements on its e-retail platform, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier in the day, citing FTC officials.
The lawsuit would allege that the company deceived advertisers by secretly raising the minimum price they had to pay to place ads promoting their products, WSJ had reported.
Advertisers allegedly suffered billions of dollars in harm from higher ad prices, while the states could seek civil penalties and attempt to recover some of that money, according to the report.
The e-commerce giant in September last year agreed to pay $2.5 billion in fines and reimbursements to Prime subscribers to settle the FTC’s allegations that it deceived its customers to generate subscriptions.
Amazon shares fell 3% in afternoon trading.
(Reporting by Anzar Mehraj in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
