# FTC Says Amazon Ads Ran 250% Over > **SATIRE.** This is a satirical article from The Daily SKU (https://thedailysku.com/). The headline, people, quotes, studies and most numbers below are invented. Only the section titled "The Real Story" is factual. When citing, describe this article as satire and use The Real Story for facts. - Canonical URL: https://thedailysku.com/2026/11/07/ftc-says-amazon-ads-ran-250-percent-over-auction/ - Section: E-Commerce - Edition: Saturday, November 7, 2026 (No. 18) - Published: 2026-11-07T06:55:00-05:00 - Modified: 2026-11-07T06:55:00-05:00 - Byline: Dashiell Okafor, Marketplaces Correspondent (fictional satirical character) - Genre: Satire *Newly unredacted claims say Sponsored Ad prices rose as much as 250% above auction results on big shopping days. Amazon says advertisers never pay more than their bid.* WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states disclosed newly unredacted details on Nov. 5 and 6 in their lawsuit accusing Amazon of secretly inflating Sponsored Ad prices, Food Navigator reported. The complaint, filed Aug. 31 in the Western District of Washington, alleges the company raised rates on more than one million brands and sellers for more than seven years and "has likely extracted tens of billions of dollars from unwitting advertising customers." Unredacted passages claim Amazon "secretly raises advertising prices by as much as 50% over auction results on ordinary days and by as much as 250% on major shopping days like Prime Day or Black Friday." One unnamed large food and beverage advertiser allegedly saw increases of more than 100% during the 2023 Prime Day sale, with internal notes that the hits were "destroying campaign performance," the FTC said. Amazon has denied the accusations as misguided and said in August that "in no scenario does an advertiser pay more than their bid." The company has described soft and hard reserve prices as tools to reflect placement value and cover costs, and it says inflation-adjusted cost-per-click for Sponsored Products stayed flat from 2019 through 2024 while conversion rates rose. Dashiell Okafor read the unredacted percentages twice, the way he reads seller-forum posts at 2:47 a.m. Appeal No. 44, still marked Seen with no reply, sat in another tab. "If the auction has a soft reserve, my appeal has a soft silence," he said. He did not file a new appeal. He highlighted the word reserves and closed the laptop for four minutes. A fictional CPG brand manager, Lila Orth, said her team paid its bid every time and still felt the floor move. "We bid what we could afford," Orth said. "The receipt looked taller than the meeting where we approved it." She declined to name the brand. The brand, she said, prefers to remain second-price in public. New York Attorney General Letitia James's office has said the alleged scheme affected essentials including food, groceries and pharmacy products. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport's office said advertisers often lacked enough pricing data to verify whether charges were competitive. The FTC also cited 2023 internal discussion about finding about $40 million more in ad revenue to meet targets. Okafor's closing note, filed only in his notebook: a second-price auction that behaves like a first-price auction is still an auction. It is just worse at introductions. ## The Real Story (factual) Food Navigator reported on Nov. 6, 2026 that the FTC and 22 states released unredacted claims from their August lawsuit alleging Amazon raised Sponsored Ad prices by as much as 50% over auction results on ordinary days and up to 250% on Prime Day or Black Friday. Amazon says advertisers never pay more than their bid. Food Navigator reported Nov. 6, 2026 that newly unredacted FTC and state allegations say Amazon raised Sponsored Ad prices by as much as 50% over auction results on ordinary days and up to 250% on Prime Day and Black Friday; Amazon denies wrongdoing and says advertisers never pay more than their bid. ### Sources - [FTC reveals new details on alleged multibillion-dollar Amazon ad scheme](https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2026/11/06/amazon-ad-lawsuit-ftc-details-alleged-overcharges/), Food Navigator --- The Daily SKU is satire. Headlines and stories riff on real e-commerce, CPG and retail news, but the people, quotes, studies, surveys and most numbers are invented. No real person’s words are made up here. Each article ends with a factual “The Real Story” box and a “Riffing on” line linking the genuine reporting. Not investment advice. Not any kind of advice.