Federal Trade Commission and 22 states sue Amazon over inflated advertising prices - AP News

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington, claims Amazon told advertising customers it was offering competitive prices on several ad products while actually driving those auction prices up. The FTC's chairman, Andrew Ferguson, said the impact of that kind of conduct from one of the world's largest online retailers "can be staggering."

For small business owners in Lubbock who use Amazon's advertising platform to get their products in front of customers, this case hits close to home. If you paid for Amazon ads thinking you were getting a fair market price, the lawsuit suggests you may have been overcharged without knowing it.

Amazon has not been found liable, and this is an active lawsuit, not a verdict. But with 1.2 million customers potentially affected, the scale of the alleged overcharging is hard to ignore.