FTC orders Uber, Delta, Walmart and six others to say whether personal data sets prices

The Federal Trade Commission on October 28, 2026, ordered nine companies to explain whether they use personal data to set the prices consumers pay or the pay that gig workers receive. The orders went to Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart. The agency wants to learn whether the price of a ticket, ride, delivery or other product differs between customers because of factors such as loyalty-program membership or the analysis of their personal data by algorithms.

The orders rely on Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, which lets the commission run broad studies that have no specific law enforcement purpose. Each company has 45 days from receiving its order to respond, and the FTC can go to federal court to compel compliance. The vote was 2-0; the resolution behind the orders lists two commissioners, Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and Mark R. Meador.

Consumers deserve to know whether companies use their web surfing habits or other personal data to estimate the highest price they can charge each consumer.

What the companies must hand over

Each order asks the company to describe in detail every method that uses personal information to set or adjust prices, decide which workers are offered which jobs, or set pay. For each method, the company must name the software and other tools involved, list every input, explain each step and say when it overrides the result. The requests cover the period from January 1, 2023, until the company complies, and studies and A/B tests of these practices going back to January 1, 2021.

• Pricing: the inputs each method uses, whether they vary from one customer to another, and how many sales and how much revenue each method touched every year.
• Gig work: how job offers and pay are set. The FTC says ride-sharing and delivery companies may base pay offers on drivers' personal data, such as phone usage or their record of accepting past offers.
• Effects: how much each method raises or lowers prices and pay, and whether it brings in more customers or more workers.
• Disclosure: the exact wording, location and dates of anything the company told consumers or workers about these practices.

The order defines personal information broadly, from names and locations to browsing history, health data, a person's “willingness to pay for a product or service” and anything inferred from such data. It also asks how many employees work on pricing, pay, loyalty programs and what it calls “Super Intelligence.” The order defines that term in nearly the same words that federal law uses for artificial intelligence: a machine-based system that can make predictions, recommendations or decisions for objectives set by people.

The FTC's second look

This is the agency's second study of the practice. In July 2024, under then-Chair Lina M. Khan, the commission voted 5-0 to send 6(b) orders on what it called surveillance pricing to eight companies that sell pricing products: Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, JPMorgan Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture and McKinsey & Co. Staff findings published on January 17, 2025, said those firms worked with at least 250 clients, from grocery stores to apparel retailers, and that behavior as detailed as mouse movements on a webpage could be tracked and used to tailor prices.

Ferguson concurred in the 2024 orders as a commissioner. In January 2025 he and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak dissented over the release of the staff findings, which the commission approved 3-2. The new release says the earlier study examined only “middlemen consultancies” and told the agency nothing about actual pricing decisions, so this round goes straight to companies that set prices. Both studies carry the same FTC matter number, P246202.

What comes next

The study runs alongside a draft enforcement policy statement that the FTC put out for comment on August 19, 2026. The draft says that collecting or using personal data to set individual prices without telling consumers could break the FTC Act's ban on unfair or deceptive practices. Comments closed on September 18, 2026. Ferguson said at the time that the agency “does not have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances,” but that businesses that do not tell consumers how their data is used to set a price may be breaking the law.

The FTC says it reports confidential company information from 6(b) studies only in aggregated or anonymous form. It has not said when it expects to publish results from the new study.