Florida's Attorney General, James Uthmeier, announced on Wednesday legal action against Amazon for an alleged scheme of hidden surcharges in its advertising platform that is said to have generated billions of dollars for the company while ultimately passing some of those costs onto consumers' prices.
Florida joined the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 21 other states in the lawsuit against the tech giant, according to the Attorney General's Office.
The lawsuit claims that for more than four years, Amazon deceived companies purchasing ads for Sponsored Products by presenting its system as a "second-price" auction, in which the winner only had to pay one cent more than the second-best bid.
According to the plaintiffs, Amazon actually introduced an undisclosed surcharge that increased the price advertisers had to pay. By 2024, the lawsuit claims that approximately 80% of the auctions ended up charging the winner the full amount of their own bid.
Prosecutors claim that the company began testing the mechanism in 2019 and 2020 and later expanded it, even increasing the surcharges during major sales events such as Prime Day and Black Friday.
"Amazon's internal emails show that they knew it was misleading, but they went ahead anyway. Even after investigators alerted them, they continued to do it," Uthmeier stated.
The alleged economic impact is significant. According to the Florida Prosecutor's Office, the system is said to have generated more than $20 billion in additional charges to around 1.2 million advertising clients in the United States, including over 500,000 small and medium-sized enterprises.
In Florida, vendors and merchants would have paid hundreds of millions of dollars more.
The complaint also states that a portion of those costs was ultimately passed on to consumers through higher prices for food, medications, clothing, school supplies, and other everyday items.
"Amazon told companies in Florida that they were participating in a fair auction. That was false," Uthmeier stated. "Amazon concealed a surcharge, inflated its own profits, and those costs fell on Florida families who were buying food, medicine, and essential items."
Florida accuses the company of violating the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and is seeking, among other measures, a permanent injunction, restitution, return of profits obtained through the questioned practices, and civil penalties.
Amazon rejected the accusations and described the case as "misguided." The company argues that its pricing mechanisms saved advertisers approximately $8 billion between 2021 and 2025, and denies that the cost per click has increased during that period.
The new litigation adds to other recent confrontations between Amazon and U.S. regulators. In 2025, the company reached a 2.5 billion dollar settlement with the FTC related to Amazon Prime subscriptions.
Uthmeier concluded his announcement with a warning: "If you manipulate the game and pass the bill to the families of Florida, we will hold you accountable."
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