By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026According to the suit, Amazon did this *80%* of the time. That is *tens* of *billions* of dollars Amazon extracted from platform sellers, who passed those costs onto you, *and* onto *every other retailer* in the country (thanks to AI-enforced Most Favored Nation policies). 65/ 215617
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026Amazon's defense is that this is all a big misunderstanding. Platform sellers just didn't understand how a SBSPA worked. 66/ 1955
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026Amazon has a *special* kind of SBSPA where they could unilaterally and secretly charge the winning bidder the maximum price they'd pledged, if, in Amazon's judgment, the closing price for the auction was below "the true market value of the ad placement": arstechnica.com/tech-policy/... 67/arstechnica.comFTC alleges Amazon illegally made $20 billion by rigging billions of ad auctionsFTC says firm replaces actual ad-auction results "with higher prices set by Amazon." 113818