FTC orders Uber, Walmart, Delta and six others to disclose how they set personalized prices

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday ordered nine of the largest US consumer-facing companies — Delta, United, JetBlue, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Target, and Walmart — to disclose how they use personal data to set prices for customers and pay for gig workers, as first reported by The Guardian and Business Insider. The orders require each company to turn over pricing methodologies, AI-driven personalization practices, and internal A/B-test research dating back to January 1, 2023.

The inquiry matters because it targets a practice that has grown largely unregulated and mostly invisible to consumers: algorithmic pricing that can charge two people different amounts for the same ride, meal delivery, or airline seat based on their browsing history, loyalty-program status, or other personal data. It follows consumer complaints and lawsuits alleging Instacart's AI pricing tools inflated grocery bills and that Uber drivers were paid different fares based on personal history with the platform. The FTC's current inquiry builds directly on a July 2024 surveillance-pricing study opened under the Biden administration, which had demanded similar information from McKinsey, JPMorgan Chase, and other firms that sell pricing-personalization tools to retailers.

FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson framed the action around disclosure rather than an accusation of wrongdoing: "Consumers deserve to know whether companies use their web surfing habits or other personal data to estimate the highest price they can charge each consumer," he said, adding that "workers also deserve to know if their compensation is affected by how companies use their personal data." The orders specifically ask whether gig-worker pay — such as Uber's practice of presenting drivers with trip payouts that aren't based on a fixed per-mile rate but instead reflect factors like real-time demand — is itself personalized using the same kind of data.

This is a formal Section 6(b) study, a legal mechanism that lets the FTC compel detailed information without accusing a company of breaking the law, and the resulting report is intended to inform future rulemaking or legislation rather than trigger immediate penalties. That distinction matters for airlines in particular: the FTC has no authority to fine or regulate airline pricing practices directly, so Delta, United, and JetBlue can be studied but not punished through this process. Several named companies have already pushed back on the premise. A Delta spokesperson said "there is no fare product Delta has ever used, is testing, or plans to use that targets customers with individualized offers based on personal data," and Instacart said in a statement, "we do not use personal information to set prices, and we never will."

Whether the inquiry leads anywhere concrete is an open question. Rohit Chopra, a former FTC commissioner who now leads California's new Business and Consumer Protection Agency, was skeptical that this kind of study produces lasting change: "What we have seen so far is that they have not been using these studies that produce meaningful reports that ultimately lead to any rule-making changes," he said. Several states have separately begun introducing their own legislation to restrict surveillance pricing and electronic shelf-label systems that could be used to vary prices by shopper, suggesting that any real constraint on algorithmic pricing is more likely to come from state law than from this federal study.