Amazon is facing a possible FTC lawsuit over claims that it misled advertisers, a case that could carry billions of dollars in civil penalties, according to Bloomberg. Investigators are focused on whether Amazon properly disclosed the terms and pricing behind the sponsored listings that appear at the top of its search results. What pushes the potential penalties so high is the involvement of several state attorneys general, whose consumer protection laws allow daily fines well beyond the federal limits on what the FTC can collect on its own. Either a lawsuit or a settlement could resolve the matter as soon as this summer, pending a vote by the FTC's two Republican commissioners.
