Complaint to FTC: Search results full of deceiving ads

Amazon doesn’t distinguish well enough between paid ads and organic search results, something that could trick consumers, according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday.

More than a quarter of search results on Amazon are paid ads, according to the complaint filed by the Strategic Organizing Center, a coalition of labor unions. But because the company doesn’t clearly label sponsored results, Amazon could be “unlawfully deceiving” customers into clicking on them without knowing.

The complaint, shared exclusively with The Washington Post, is based on an analysis of more than 130,000 search results for popular products. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)