FTC Probes Google, Amazon Over ‘Opaque’ Ad Practices

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched a new investigation into the online advertising practices of Google and Amazon, focusing on the transparency of their auction pricing mechanisms and whether advertisers may have been misled. According to Bloomberg News, the inquiry, led by the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau, seeks to determine whether the two tech giants have withheld critical information during the ad bidding process, thereby inflating costs for advertisers.

Google currently relies on an automated real-time auction system, with ad ranking and sale completed in less than a second after a user enters a search query, while Amazon uses a similar instant-bidding framework for sponsored products and sponsored ads within search results. A central question is whether Amazon has failed to disclose the use of reserve pricing, and whether Google is adjusting ad costs behind the scenes, potentially forcing advertisers to pay higher rates without their knowledge.

The FTC’s activity comes amid broader antitrust and advertising-transparency scrutiny of large technology platforms, with Andrew Ferguson emphasising regulatory oversight in the digital advertising ecosystem.