The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into several prominent companies regarding their practices related to customer data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence in setting personalized pricing.
A total of eight companies—Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Task Software, McKinsey & Co., Revionics, Bloomreach, and Pros—received requests for information from the agency on Tuesday. The investigation aims to assess how these pricing strategies impact privacy, competition, and consumer protection.
These firms utilize advanced data tools, including AI, for a practice termed “surveillance pricing” or “dynamic pricing,” which allows them to present varying prices for the same products depending on individual consumer characteristics or behaviors such as location, demographics, credit history, and online activity.
Many of the companies targeted by the FTC provide essential transaction, sales, and pricing services to leading businesses in the U.S. and worldwide. Task Software manages transactions for major hospitality players like McDonald’s and Starbucks, while Revionics offers pricing analytics and optimization tools to retail giants, including Home Depot. Pros, which markets itself as a provider of AI-driven pricing solutions, serves clients such as Nestlé, HP, and United Airlines, and collaborates with Microsoft on technology development.
The FTC seeks to clarify the intricacies of this “opaque market” that classifies consumers and facilitates targeted pricing strategies.
According to FTC Chair Lina Khan, “Businesses that utilize Americans’ personal data may jeopardize individuals’ privacy. Companies might be capitalizing on this vast collection of personal information to impose higher prices. Americans have a right to understand whether businesses are applying detailed consumer data for surveillance pricing, and the FTC’s inquiry will illuminate this obscure landscape of pricing intermediaries.”
The FTC is specifically requesting information in four key areas: the types of surveillance pricing products and services each firm provides; their data collection methods; details on customer and sales information; and the influence of these surveillance practices on the prices consumers ultimately pay.