The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated an investigation into several major companies regarding their use of customer data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence for personalized pricing strategies.
The inquiry targets eight firms across various sectors, including Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture, Task Software, McKinsey & Co., Revionics, Bloomreach, and Pros. The FTC is seeking information on the implications of these pricing practices for privacy, competition, and consumer protection.
Businesses use advanced data tools, often referred to as “surveillance pricing” or “dynamic pricing,” which allow them to present different prices for the same products to consumers based on factors such as location, demographics, credit history, and browsing or shopping behavior.
Many of the firms under investigation support large corporations in the U.S. and abroad with transaction, sales, and pricing services. For example, Task Software manages transactions for well-known hospitality brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks, while Revionics supplies pricing analytics and optimization software to global retailers like Home Depot. Pros, a technology company focused on AI-driven pricing solutions, has clients including Nestlé, HP, and United Airlines, and collaborates with Microsoft on technology development.
The FTC aims to investigate this “opaque market,” which profiles consumers and applies targeted pricing to products and services. FTC Chair Lina Khan stated that companies collecting extensive personal data from Americans might risk their privacy and could be exploiting this information to impose higher prices. The FTC’s inquiry seeks to clarify whether businesses are utilizing detailed consumer data for surveillance pricing and to illuminate this complex pricing landscape.
The agency is specifically looking for details in four main areas: the surveillance pricing products and services each company provides; their data collection methods; customer and sales data; and the influence of these practices on the prices consumers pay.