The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into several major companies regarding their practices of using customer data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence to set personalized pricing.
Eight companies spanning various sectors—Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Task Software, McKinsey & Co., Revionics, Bloomreach, and Pros—received requests for information from the FTC. The agency is specifically examining how these pricing strategies affect privacy, competition, and consumer protection.
These companies utilize what is known as “surveillance pricing” or “dynamic pricing,” where different prices are shown to consumers for the same products based on characteristics such as location, demographics, credit scores, and shopping history.
Many of the firms under scrutiny provide transaction, sales, and pricing services to major companies both in the U.S. and internationally. For instance, Task Software manages transactions for well-known hospitality brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks. Revionics offers pricing optimization solutions to global retailers, including Home Depot, while Pros, which markets itself as a provider of AI-driven pricing tools, has clients such as Nestlé, HP, and United Airlines and collaborates with Microsoft in technology development.
The FTC aims to clarify the nature of this “opaque market” that assigns targeted prices based on consumer profiling. FTC Chair Lina Khan emphasized the potential risks, stating that businesses leveraging personal data could lead to higher prices for consumers. She highlighted the importance of transparency around whether companies are indeed employing such surveillance pricing strategies.
The FTC’s inquiry will focus on four main areas: the types of surveillance pricing products and services offered by these companies, their data collection methods, customer and sales information, and the impact of these practices on customer pricing.