This morning, the Federal Trade Commission announced it is seeking public comment on an enforcement policy to curb corporations’ use of consumers’ personal data to set individualized prices. The announcement follows Groundwork’s bombshell investigation that found grocery delivery service Instacart was charging shoppers different prices for the same item from the same store. In the wake of the investigation, the FTC opened a probe into Instacart’s pricing deceptions and massive public backlash forced the company to end the practice.
Groundwork’s President and CEO Lindsay Owens, author of the upcoming Gouged: The End of a Fair Price–and What That Means for Your Wallet, shared her reaction to the news:
“Americans deserve to pay a fair price. For too long, companies have had a secret weapon in the pricing game – the troves of personal data they’ve amassed on shoppers tracked from their internet searches, purchases, and other online activity. Policymakers must step up to protect us from AI-powered deceptive pricing techniques that allow companies to turn our own data against us.
Despite calling surveillance pricing a ‘made up’ term and ending an investigation into the practice in his first days in office, Chairman Ferguson has finally woken up to the fact that companies are trying to pull a fast one on American shoppers. But buried in the footnotes of the FTC’s statement, Chairman Ferguson makes it clear that he’ll let companies play semantics as long as they disclose what they’re doing.
It shouldn’t be on consumers to navigate the fine print and sniff out if they’re being played. A disclosed price can still be an unfair one. If a company can use an algorithm to determine if you’re desperate, loyal, or simply willing to pay more, we need more than just mandatory disclosures. We need stronger regulation that gives consumers more power and protection.
No one’s information should be a license for companies to pick your pocket. Let’s price products, not people.”