The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into several major corporations regarding their use of customer data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence to personalize pricing strategies.
The agency issued orders to eight firms, including Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Task Software, McKinsey & Co., Revionics, Bloomreach, and Pros, seeking information on how these pricing methods affect privacy, competition, and consumer protection.
These companies utilize data-driven tools, often referred to as “surveillance pricing” or “dynamic pricing,” to display varying prices for the same products based on consumer characteristics and behaviors such as location, demographics, credit history, and browsing habits.
Many of the FCA’s targets are key providers of transaction, sales, and pricing services to prominent U.S. and global brands. For example, Task Software manages transactions for major hospitality entities like McDonald’s and Starbucks, while Revionics provides pricing optimization software to international retailers such as Home Depot. Pros, which claims to offer AI-driven pricing solutions, serves clients including Nestlé, HP, and United Airlines, and collaborates with Microsoft for technology development.
The FTC aims to clarify the practices in this “opaque market” where shoppers are categorized for targeted pricing strategies. FTC Chair Lina Khan emphasized the potential privacy risks associated with companies collecting vast amounts of personal data, noting that these businesses might exploit this information to charge higher prices. She stated that Americans have a right to know if their detailed consumer data is being used to implement such pricing tactics, and the FTC’s investigation seeks to illuminate this complex web of pricing intermediaries.
The FTC has outlined four primary areas of inquiry: the types of surveillance pricing solutions offered by each company, methods of data collection, customer and sales data handling, and how these surveillance practices affect the prices consumers ultimately pay.