#advertising

The Apex Building, the Federal Trade Commission headquarters, seen from above at dusk on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C.

The FTC says Amazon hid a surcharge in its ad auctions, and winners paid their own bid 80% of the time

The FTC and 22 states allege Amazon quietly turned its second-price ad auction into a first-price one, charging Sponsored Products winners their full bid.

Policy·2 months ago

Around 3% of people want tracking. EU governments dropped the plan to end cookie banners.

A civil-society coalition wants EU browsers to send a machine-readable privacy signal instead of showing consent pop-ups. The Council deleted the provision on June 18.

Two white 3D speech-bubble icons side by side on a grey background.

AI·2 months ago

$100 million in six weeks. Now ChatGPT runs two ads per answer.

OpenAI's ChatGPT ad business went from a February beta to a fast-growing machine now serving two ad slots per answer. How it works, and why skeptics doubt the money.