The Federal Trade Commission is demanding information from Delta Air Lines, Walmart, Uber and six other companies to provide detailed information that will allow the agency to study the use of personal data to set prices, wages and job offers.
The other companies contacted by the FTC were JetBlue, Lyft, United, DoorDash, Instacart and Target, the FTC said in a news release.
The request was made under the provisions of Section 6(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which was passed by Congress in 1914. Under the legislation, each company must provide information that will allow the FTC to assess whether the pricing for a ticket, ride share, food delivery or other product or service varies from one person to the next based on factors such as participation in loyalty programs or analysis of personal data by superintelligence algorithms.
If a company fails to turn over the required information, the Commission has the power to compel compliance in federal court.
Reuters was the first news outlet to report the FTC announcement.
“We intend 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,” FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in a statement. “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. Workers also deserve to know if their compensation is affected by how companies use their personal data.”
The FTC will use the information to publish a study to help inform regulators and lawmakers about personalized pricing and wage-setting practice.
The agency said it issued a study on personalized pricing in mid-2024, but that only involved “middleman consultancies” instead of the businesses that actually set prices for services and products offered to consumers.
“The agency learned nothing about actual pricing decisions from the 2024 study,” the FTC said. “This study corrects the Commission’s mistaken 2024 approach and demands information directly from companies who may be engaging in personalized pricing, rather than middlemen.”
The companies notified by the FTC will have 45 days to respond.