The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Amazon and Google mislead advertisers to involve pricing and terms of their ads. As reported for the first time the investigation was conducted by the agency’s consumer protection department and centered on the company’s auction-style advertising space.
Google uses an automatic auction run after the user enters a search query to sell ads. These auctions will take place in less than a second. Amazon uses live auctions to place ads in its list, which users recognize as a “sponsored list” or “sponsored ad” when searching for a specific product.
The survey questions are whether Amazon has disclosed so-called “reserved pricing” for some of its ads, a price platform where advertisers must meet before buying ads. In the case of Google, the FTC is looking at some practices of search giants, including their internal pricing processes, and whether it secretly increases the cost of advertising in ways that advertisers are not universal.
The FTC isn’t the only federal agency that has been paying close attention to Big Tech. Earlier this year Google held a monopoly on online advertising technology after the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a campaign to undermine the giant’s advertising business. Google has also escaped recently Monopoly case from the Department of Justice involving its Chrome browser.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has previously said Big Tech is one of the agency’s top priorities. These investigations continue in the context of top technology CEOs, continuing to attempt to pass through President Trump and sweeping the floor (if it is unrealistic) In the U.S. economy.
