On Monday, August 31, 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alongside a bipartisan group of more than 20 state attorneys general is preparing to file a lawsuit against Amazon alleging that the tech giant “deceived advertisers by secretly raising the minimum price advertisers had to pay to place ads promoting their products.”

The following statement can be attributed to Sumit Sharma, Executive Director for NextGen Competition (nextgencomp.tech):

“Amazon has spent years using its gatekeeper power over online commerce to squeeze sellers, advertisers, and consumers. If the allegations are proven, Amazon covertly juiced its advertising charges, raising prices for sellers and potentially consumers.

Small businesses deserve transparency, fair business practices, and a competitive market. Success should be determined by better products and services, not by who can pay artificially inflated advertising costs.

We applaud the FTC and the bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general for seeking to hold Amazon accountable. Amazon is a must-have marketplace for small businesses, who have no choice but to absorb whatever costs the platform imposes. This is exactly why robust competition enforcement matters.”

About NextGen Competition

NextGen Competition is on a mission to create a fair and competitive technology ecosystem that empowers consumers, workers, and small businesses by supporting robust enforcement of antitrust laws and policies. Our aim is to enable many independent technology companies to innovate, compete, and offer differentiated services, and to rectify the profound imbalance of power that allows the largest technology firms to unilaterally set terms and conditions for everyone, use our data, and capture our attention without meaningful constraints.