FTC demands pricing data from airlines it cannot fine

FTC inquiry spans consumer prices and gig-worker pay

The commission is demanding that Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart turn over data on how they use algorithms and loyalty programs to set prices and wages — a single inquiry spanning both what consumers pay and what gig workers are paid for the same product or service. The demand follows investigations and lawsuits alleging that consumers are charged different prices based on their buying histories and that drivers are paid different fares based on their personal histories.

Because the FTC is tasked with policing “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” in industries except banking and airlines, it cannot impose any fines or regulations on the airlines named. While the Trump administration has rolled back corporate regulations, the commission’s consumer-protection division has joined with states in some instances to pursue legal action and penalties against some companies.

Companies must “turn over information that will allow the agency to assess whether the pricing for a ticket, ride share, food delivery or other product or service varies from one person to the next based on factors such as participation in loyalty programs or analysis of personal data by super-intelligence algorithms,” the FTC said.

In a statement, Chair Andrew Ferguson said the agency will “scrutinize the opaque methodology that some companies in these industries may be using to determine how much consumers pay or how much gig workers are paid for the same product or service.”

The inquiry comes as store pricing practices, including surveillance pricing and overcharges by Dollar General and convenience stores, strain family budgets already burdened by inflation.

Several states have begun introducing legislation to ban surveillance pricing and electronic shelf labels that could be used to set different prices based on shoppers’ habits and online information.

The probe follows a July 2024 inquiry by the Biden administration into surveillance pricing, which demanded information from McKinsey, JPMorgan Chase and others that offered surveillance-pricing products to consumer-facing companies. “Details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services,” the FTC found in January 2025.

Whether the inquiry will result in substantial changes in consumer laws or company practices is unclear. “What we have seen so far is that they have not been using these studies that produce meaningful reports that ultimately lead to any rule-making changes,” said Rohit Chopra, a former FTC commissioner who is now head of California’s new Business and Consumer Protection Agency.