The US Federal Trade Commission issued a 15-page information-gathering order to nine companies — including Walmart and Target — as part of an investigation into personalised pricing: whether "pricing for a ticket, ride share, food delivery or other product or service varies from one person to the next" based on analysis of personal data, including from loyalty programs and AI. The orders, also sent to several airlines, ride-sharing firms and food delivery entities, ask how the companies collect and use personal data, how prices and compensation are adjusted on that basis, and how any algorithmic systems are designed and monitored. The inquiry extends the FTC's broader examination of data-driven price discrimination and follows separate scrutiny of surveillance-based pricing practices. For retailers and loyalty-program operators, the orders signal that consent and data-use documentation around personalised pricing are becoming a compliance issue, not just a consumer trust one.

• Source article