The Federal Trade Commission has demanded detailed records from Walmart, Uber and seven other major companies as it digs into whether businesses are using Americans' personal data to charge them individually different prices, set wages or shape job offers. The demands, confirmed by a senior FTC official, also went out to Target, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Delta, United and JetBlue.
The FTC is investigating whether and how these companies use consumer data such as location, browsing history and income to set individual prices, wages and job offers, according to Reuters, which reported the demands from New York. A senior FTC official told the outlet that the demands were sent to Walmart, Uber and the seven other companies, seeking comprehensive information on the tools, strategies and data behind their pricing, wage-setting and job-offer practices, and what effects those practices have had.
What the FTC Is Trying to Learn
The commission plans to use the information to publish a study meant to inform regulators and lawmakers about personalized pricing and wage-setting practices, per the same Reuters report. Algorithmic pricing technology, including tools built on artificial intelligence, has fueled concerns about companies using consumer data to set individualized prices.
This is not the FTC's first run at the issue. The agency launched an industry study of dynamic pricing in June 2024 and gathered information through administrative subpoenas sent to eight dynamic-pricing vendors, according to Wiley. A preliminary staff research summary published in January 2025 found that AI-driven pricing tools relied on consumer data like location, browsing history and purchase patterns to set individualized prices, adjust them in real time, and even manipulate product rankings.
Ferguson Signals Enforcement Is Coming
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has said personalized pricing could violate consumer protection laws when shoppers do not expect it, and that companies should expect enforcement over the practice, according to Reuters. The agency has said it lacks authority to issue a blanket prohibition on personalized pricing, even though hundreds of commenters urged it to ban the practice outright, Reuters reported.
The agency is also weighing a disclosure-focused approach. Mlex reported in September that the FTC is preparing a study of whether businesses use personal data to charge different consumers different prices, and that it has proposed a policy statement treating undisclosed personalized pricing as potentially unfair, as states increasingly move to limit the practice on their own. Separately, Reuters reported in August that the commission is considering requiring businesses to disclose outright whether they use personalized pricing data.
States Already Moving Ahead of Washington
States Already Moving Ahead of Washington Some state and local governments have considered restrictions on personalized pricing. More than two dozen states have introduced over 40 surveillance-pricing bills, per Retail Dive. New York's Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act, which took effect in November 2025, requires companies using personalized algorithmic pricing to give consumers a clear disclosure that their price was set using personal data.
The National Retail Federation has pushed back against that patchwork of state restrictions, criticizing laws banning personalized pricing while defending retailers' use of data-driven discounts as a way to incentivize customer loyalty, according to Reuters. Trade groups have asked the FTC to distinguish personalized pricing from discounts and loyalty programs.
What Testing Has Found So Far
Independent testing has turned up real disparities in at least one corner of the market the FTC is now probing. A joint investigation found that Instacart, using Eversight artificial intelligence pricing software, could charge different shoppers up to 23% more for the identical grocery item from the same store at the same time, according to a Consumer Reports press release. Nearly three-quarters of grocery items tested on Instacart showed different prices to different shoppers, with some items carrying five simultaneous price points, and basket totals for identical items from identical locations at identical times varied by an average of about 7%. Instacart later ended the price tests that produced those discrepancies, Reuters reported.
Ridehailing has shown similar patterns. A Consumer Reports investigation into Uber and Lyft found the median price difference between the lowest- and highest-price groupings was about 42%, Retail Dive reported.
Retailers Deny Personalizing Prices
Two of the companies now facing FTC demands have publicly rejected the idea that they personalize prices at all. Walmart has said it will not use artificial intelligence, customer data or digital shelf labels to set personalized prices, according to Fox Business. The retailer also said its digital shelf labels do not identify customers or independently set prices. The retailer also said information customers share with its Sparky shopping assistant is not used to change the prices they pay.
