2026年8月31日 / 美国东部时间下午4:00 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
美国联邦贸易委员会与22个州于周一起诉亚马逊，指控这家电商巨头在其在线搜索广告拍卖中暗中抬高价格，可能让消费者损失数百亿美元。
这起诉讼指控，未披露的加价行为已持续七年，导致超过100万个亚马逊品牌和卖家在该平台投放广告时需支付的费用上涨。
参与此次诉讼的还有阿拉斯加、亚利桑那、加利福尼亚、科罗拉多、佛罗里达、爱达荷、伊利诺伊、印第安纳、艾奥瓦、肯塔基、路易斯安那、马里兰、内布拉斯加、新泽西、纽约、北卡罗来纳、俄克拉荷马、宾夕法尼亚、罗德岛、南卡罗来纳、佛蒙特和华盛顿州的总检察长。
此次诉讼的核心是所谓的第二价格拍卖——这是数字广告交易的行业标准。亚马逊曾告知广告商，他们只需比第二名出价高出“1美分”即可获得某个广告关键词的投放权，但诉讼指控称，亚马逊在约80%的情况下实际向中标者收取了他们自身的出价。
美国联邦贸易委员会及联合起诉的各州称，这抬高了企业的广告成本。
“全球最大的在线零售商之一从事不公平和欺骗性行为，其影响可能极为惊人，”美国联邦贸易委员会主席安德鲁·N·弗格森在一份声明中表示。“亚马逊有数百万广告客户被误导，支付了远高于正常水平的价格。这些额外成本很大程度上转嫁给了美国消费者。”
亚马逊称此次诉讼“毫无根据”，并表示2019年至2025年间，其赞助商品广告的平均中标出价下降了50%。
“美国联邦贸易委员会的指控从根本上误解了广告商的运营方式，”该公司在一份声明中说道。“广告商是根据实际表现调整出价，而非依据拍卖机制的描述。”
亚马逊补充道：“即便接受美国联邦贸易委员会存在缺陷的前提，即广告商不会调整出价，我们估计，由于亚马逊优先考虑广告相关性而非仅根据出价选择广告，广告商在2021年至2025年间已节省了超过80亿美元。”
内部文件
根据美国联邦贸易委员会诉状中援引的一位亚马逊高管的说法，亚马逊内部文件显示，该零售商清楚广告商是基于他们参与真正第二价格拍卖的信念进行出价的，但员工们据称曾讨论过抬高价格，同时“希望广告商不会注意到并减少出价或广告支出”。
北卡罗来纳州总检察长杰夫·杰克逊称，亚马逊曾测试在不被广告商察觉的情况下，最多可以增加多少隐藏收费。
诉讼指控称：“亚马逊煞费苦心地主动向消费者隐瞒其抬高所谓拍卖价格的事实。随着亚马逊越来越确信其广告客户未察觉其行为，它大幅提高了隐藏加价幅度。”
纽约州总检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯在一份声明中表示，美国联邦贸易委员会和各州正寻求法院禁令，禁止亚马逊实施这一“非法计划”，并要求该公司支付罚款、赔偿金及其他损害赔偿。
编辑：阿兰·谢特
FTC and 22 states sue Amazon over alleged secret ad surcharge scheme
August 31, 2026 / 4:00 PM EDT / CBS News
The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states on Monday sued Amazon over allegations that the e-commerce giant secretly inflated prices in its online search advertising auctions, potentially costing customers tens of billions of dollars.
The lawsuit alleges that the undisclosed surcharges were applied for seven years, increasing the prices that more than 1 million Amazon brands and sellers were required to pay to advertise on its platform.
The FTC’s lawsuit was joined by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington.
The lawsuit centers on so-called second-price auctions, the industry standard for digital ad deals. Amazon informed businesses that they would pay only “one cent more” than the second-place bidder for an advertising keyword, but the lawsuit alleges that the retailer charged the winners their own price about 80% of the time.
That raised costs for businesses, alleged the FTC and states joining the suit.
“When one of the world’s largest online retailers engages in unfair and deceptive conduct, the impact can be staggering,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement. “Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices. These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers.”
Amazon called the lawsuit “misguided,” and said that the average winning bids for sponsored product ads dropped 50% from 2019 to 2025.
“The FTC’s claim fundamentally misunderstands how advertisers operate,” the company said in a statement. “Advertisers adjust bids based on real-world performance, not descriptions of auction mechanics.”
Amazon added, “Even accepting the FTC’s flawed premise that advertisers do not adjust bids, we estimate they saved over $8 billion from 2021 to 2025 as a result of Amazon prioritizing ad relevancy over selecting ads on bid price alone.”
Internal documents
Internal Amazon documents suggest the retailer was aware that advertisers were bidding based on their belief they were taking part in a true second-price auction, but that employees allegedly discussed raising prices while “hoping that advertisers don’t notice and decrease bids or ad spend,” according to an Amazon executive cited in the FTC’s complaint.
Amazon allegedly tested how much it could increase hidden charges without being detected by advertisers, according to North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson.
“Amazon takes great pains to actively conceal from customers the fact that it inflates its purported auction prices,” the lawsuit alleged. “As Amazon’s confidence that its advertising customers are unaware of its conduct has grown, it has substantially increased its hidden surcharges.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement that the FTC and states are seeking a court order to bar Amazon from pursuing the “illegal scheme” and to require the company to pay penalties, restitution and other damages.
Edited by Alain Sherter
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