Amazon Boosted Junk Ads and Deleted Messages To Thwart Antitrust Probe, FTC Says

Amazon doubled the number of junk ads to boost profits and deleted internal communications to thwart a federal antitrust probe, according to fresh details released by the US Federal Trade Commission in a less redacted complaint against the online retail giant Thursday. From a report: Amazon's founder and former Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos personally ordered executives to accept more ads, even ones the company had internally labeled as "defects," indicating they weren't relevant to user searches, according to the new version of the complaint. The FTC alleges that Amazon's increased use of ads boosts profits while it harms sellers and consumers, making it harder for shoppers to find products they are searching for. "We'd be crazy not to" increase the number of advertisements shown to shoppers," the FTC quoted Amazon executives as saying. One executive compiled a number of the defective ads showing "buck urine" showing up in response to searches for "water bottles" or T-shirts for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team in response to queries for the Seattle Seahawks football team merchandise. In third quarter 2023 earnings announced last week, Amazon reported advertising revenue of $12.1 billion, making the company's ad unit its fastest-growing business. The company also deleted internal communications using the "disappearing message" feature of Signal and destroyed more than two years' worth of such communications, from June 2019 to at least early 2022, the FTC alleged.

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