The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into several prominent companies regarding their use of customer data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence to personalize pricing.
The agency issued inquiries on Tuesday to eight firms, including Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Task Software, McKinsey & Co., Revionics, Bloomreach, and Pros. The focus is on understanding how these practices impact privacy, competitiveness, and consumer protection.
These companies utilize data-driven methods, often referred to as “surveillance pricing,” or “dynamic pricing,” which allows them to display varying prices for the same products based on consumer characteristics and behaviors. Factors influencing pricing may include a customer’s location, demographics, credit history, as well as their browsing and shopping activities.
Many of the firms contacted provide transaction, sales, and pricing services to major U.S. and global corporations. Task Software, for example, manages transactions for several leading hospitality brands, including McDonald’s and Starbucks. Revionics specializes in retail price optimization and analytics, serving well-known chains such as Home Depot. Pros markets itself as an AI-driven pricing solution provider with notable clients like Nestlé, HP, and United Airlines, and is a technology partner of Microsoft.
The FTC aims to investigate the “opaque market” that profiles consumers and assigns targeted prices for various products and services.
FTC Chair Lina Khan emphasized the potential risks of privacy invasion through the exploitation of consumer data to impose higher prices. Khan stated, “Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing, and the FTC’s inquiry will shed light on this shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”
The FTC’s investigation seeks insights into four primary areas: the types of surveillance pricing products and services offered by each company; their data collection methods; customer and sales information; and the influence of these practices on the prices consumers ultimately face.