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FTC orders Walmart Delta Uber and peers to expose personal-data pricing

Study also examines whether gig-worker pay follows phone usage and acceptance history, agency that already holds consumer dossiers demands the private ones explain theirs

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FTC orders Walmart, Delta and others to share how they use personal data to set prices and pay – WTOP News FTC orders Walmart, Delta and others to share how they use personal data to set prices and pay – WTOP News wtop.com

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered Walmart, Delta Air Lines, United, JetBlue, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Uber to hand over detailed information on how they use consumer data to set prices — and how Uber and its peers use drivers' personal data to set their pay. Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the commission intends to scrutinize "the opaque methodology that some companies in these industries may be using to determine how much consumers pay or how much gig workers are paid for the same product or service."

The orders require each company to show whether prices for tickets, rides, deliveries or groceries vary from person to person based on loyalty-program participation or analysis of personal data, and whether gig workers are compensated according to their phone usage or history of accepting jobs. The FTC can compel compliance in federal court. Several targets moved quickly to deny the practice: Delta said it has "zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing" and has never tested fare products targeting customers with personal data; JetBlue said fares depend on demand and seat availability and all customers see the same ones; Walmart's CEO said last month the retailer neither uses income, shopping history or willingness-to-pay data for pricing nor plans to. A January 2025 preliminary FTC report, however, found that grocers and clothing companies were already using third parties to individualize online prices based on shoppers' locations, browsing histories and how long items sat in virtual carts.

Legislators in at least 30 states have considered pricing bills this year, and the FTC has proposed requiring businesses to disclose personalized pricing and the data behind it, with comments open until November 21. Ferguson, who took the chairmanship when Trump took office, criticized the earlier report as rushed for focusing on intermediaries rather than demanding data directly from the companies. The study puts the agency in an awkward position of a data collector demanding transparency from data collectors — the same consumers, after all, supply both. The companies now get to explain why the same ride, flight or delivery costs two different people two different amounts.