FTC to study surveillance pricing methods of Mastercard, Chase, other companies

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued orders for eight companies to provide information about surveillance pricing as it seeks to study the potential impacts such practices have on privacy, competition and consumer protection, the agency said Tuesday.

The FTC issued orders to Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture, and McKinsey & Co.

The eight companies advertise their use of artificial intelligence and other technologies, along with real-time customer information, to target prices of individual consumers, the agency said.

The aim is for the orders to help the FTC udnerstand the market for third-party products that use algorithms and AI with personal information, like location, demographics, credit history and browsing history, to categorize individuals and set targeted prices for products or services.

FTC Chair Lina Khan said the inquiry will “shed light on this shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”

“Firms that harvest Americans’ personal data can put people’s privacy at risk. Now firms could be exploiting this vast trove of personal information to charge people higher prices,” Khan said in a statement.

“Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing,” she added.

An FTC official declined to comment on why the specific companies were chosen, but said the aim was to look at the “middlemen companies” that help facilitate prices consumers end up seeing across a range of sectors, including grocery chains, dollar stores, retailers and quick service restaurants.

The FTC official also said the orders are fairly routine and not a reflection that the companies did anything wrong, but rather a method to gain information that can be used to study and report.

The orders are seeking information about the types of products and services being offered, the data sources used for each product or service, the products and services offered to customers, and the prices surveilled consumers pay.

The FTC voted 5-0 in favor of issuing the orders.

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