Hey Cowboys,
Happy Monday! We’re bringing you a fresh round of DTC, retail, tech, and ecommerce news to unpack this week.
Today’s lineup 👇 and stories.
Oren on what brands should actually be making right now, and why the brand's own social account is becoming a sidelined asset.
Oren John - Partner at Darkroom Agency
FTC Sues Amazon over Advertising
FTC and 22 States File Lawsuit Against Amazon Over Advertising Practices The Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against Amazon regarding its advertising auction practices. The complaint focuses on how Amazon calculates advertising bids and the prices advertisers pay. Amazon has said it disagrees with the allegations and plans to defend its practices in court.
The Rundown:
The FTC and 22 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Amazon in federal court, challenging how its Sponsored Products advertising auction system determines prices.
Regulators allege that Amazon introduced an undisclosed pricing mechanism, internally referred to as a “soft reserve price,” which affected the final prices advertisers paid.
According to the complaint, the percentage of advertisers paying their full bid increased over time, reaching roughly 80% by 2024.
The lawsuit involves more than 1.2 million advertisers, including over 500,000 small and medium-sized businesses. Regulators are seeking financial remedies and changes to the advertising practices in question.
Amazon disputes the allegations, saying advertisers make bidding decisions based on performance. The company says average winning bids fell 50% from 2019 to 2025 and that its relevancy-based advertising system helped advertisers save more than $8 billion from 2021 to 2025.
The case centers on Amazon's advertising business and how its ad auction system operates. The lawsuit will now move through the federal court process, while Amazon continues to respond to the allegations.
Top Stories: Dr. Squatch x IShowspeed, Markiplier x GoPro, Grok Agentic Commerce?
Dr. Squatch x IShowspeed $1M Speedrun - Dr. Squatch has partnered with streamer IShowSpeed on "SPEEDRUN: Million Dollar Mission," a nine-week global competition offering fans a share of a $1 million prize pool through 25 challenges spanning social media, retail aisles, and hidden briefcases in four countries. The campaign, built with Applied MSCHF, runs August 31 through October 31 and ends with a $250,000 grand finale hunt.
Markiplier Becomes GoPro's Largest Shareholder- YouTube star Mark Fischbach, known as Markiplier, has disclosed an 8.5% stake in GoPro, making him the largest single holder of the struggling camera maker's publicly traded stock. After Bloomberg reported the position Sunday, GoPro shares closed up 46% Monday and were up more than 100% in Tuesday premarket trading.
Grok buying & negotiating (15% OFF) - Elon Musk announced that Grok's @bot will handle purchases on users' behalf and also find and negotiate the best available price, responding to a viral post about an AI agent securing a 15% discount on a purchase made entirely through a messaging app. The post drew more than 750,000 views and positions Grok against a fast-forming field of agentic shopping tools.
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See you on the stream,
Ecomm Cowboy Team