FTC Faces Similar Challenges in Amazon Ad Auction Suit as With Google
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Amazon over its ad auction practices, alleging that the company has been secretly overcharging advertisers for more than seven years. Amazon disputes these claims and the FTC will have to navigate a similar path as it did with Google's ad tech business.
Last year, Judge Leonie Brinkema declined to order a breakup in the DOJ's antitrust case against Google's ad tech business, opting instead for behavioral remedies that would place limits on self-preferencing and require Google to share real-time auction data with publishers. However, critics argue that these remedies may not be enough to fix a broken market.
Arnaud Créput, CEO of Equativ, stated that the experience in France serves as a warning, saying 'behavioral remedies can address specific practices but do not necessarily eliminate the underlying incentives and structural conflicts that created the problem in the first place.'