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Federal regulators said Wednesday they are examining whether major airlines, ride-hailing companies, delivery services and retailers use personal data to charge different customers different prices for the same products and services or to determine how much gig workers are paid.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it has opened an investigation into nine companies, ordering them to provide information on how they use the personal data of consumers and workers to set prices and pay.
The orders were sent to Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart, according to the FTC.
The agency said it was seeking information to assess whether prices for airline tickets, rides, food deliveries and other products or services vary from person to person.
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FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said consumers deserve to know whether companies use their browsing history or other personal information to determine the highest prices they can charge. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Federal regulators will next examine whether factors such as loyalty programs and the analysis of personal data by superintelligence algorithms influence consumer prices and workers’ compensation.
“We intend to examine the opaque methodology that some companies in these industries may use to determine how much consumers pay or how much workers are paid for the same product or service,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.
“Consumers deserve to know whether companies are using their web browsing habits or other personal data to estimate the highest price they can charge each consumer,” Ferguson continued.
Ferguson said workers “deserve to know whether their pay is affected by how companies use their personal data.”
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Walmart has been ordered to provide information to federal regulators about its pricing practices as part of an FTC investigation into personalized pricing. (Various Photographs/Getty Images / Getty Images)
In its press release announcing the investigation, the FTC noted that transportation and food delivery companies can offer workers variable pay based on “opaque formulas.”
These companies, the FTC said, “may engage in personalized compensation based on their drivers’ personal data, such as their phone usage or past offer acceptance history.”
An Instacart spokesperson told FOX Business that the online grocery marketplace “does not and will not engage in price monitoring.”
“We do not use personal information to set prices, and we never will,” the spokesperson said.
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JetBlue told FOX Business it does not use customers’ personal information or browsing history to set individual fares, saying ticket prices are based on seat demand and availability. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“We appreciate the FTC’s emphasis on this practice, we are committed to transparency and improved affordability for customers, and we will continue to work with policymakers and regulators to ensure they understand how pricing works on our platform.”
JetBlue told FOX Business that it “does not use personal information or web browsing history to set individual fares.”
“Fares are determined by demand and seat availability, and all customers have access to the same fares on jetblue.com and our mobile app,” the airline added.
Delta also denied using personal data to set individual fares, saying it had never used, tested or planned to use a fare product targeting customers with individualized offers based on personal data.
FOX Business has reached out to United, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Target and Walmart for comment.
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The FTC said companies that fail to provide requested information could face legal action to force them to comply. Each company has 45 days from receipt of the order to respond.
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