CHARLOTTE — North Carolina is among 22 states suing Amazon, accusing the retail and tech giant of overcharging hundreds of thousands of businesses.
The lawsuit claims Amazon used “hidden surcharges” in its ad auctions to charge businesses more for sponsored advertising.
The suit also says those higher costs were passed on to customers.
Channel 9 spoke with North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson about the suit.
“The way it’s supposed to work is, you bid $1 and another person bids 50 cents, you win 51 cents,” Jackson said. “What Amazon was doing was raising the losing bid to make the winner pay more. It doesn’t sound like it’s a lot of money, but over time, over years, it’s $20 billion.”
The Federal Trade Commission and 21 other states are also part of the lawsuit.
In an online post, Amazon called the suit “misguided” and said it does not include any evidence of price increases for customers.
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