Nine companies receive information orders
The Federal Trade Commission announced on 28 October that it issued compulsory information orders to Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart. The study will examine whether prices for tickets, rides, deliveries or products vary by person based on loyalty participation or personal data, and whether gig-worker compensation uses information such as phone activity or prior offer acceptance. Recipients have 45 days from receipt to respond.
A study, not a finding of wrongdoing
The orders seek inputs, tools and procedures used to adjust pricing or pay. They do not establish that any recipient used unlawful personalised pricing. The FTC says undisclosed use of personal information to set an individual price may raise deception concerns, while acknowledging it lacks authority to ban personalised pricing in every circumstance. The inquiry is directly relevant to merchants deploying algorithmic promotions, dynamic pricing and loyalty personalisation: systems may combine browsing, location, purchase and behavioural data in ways customers cannot see, creating disclosure, privacy and fairness exposure even when the underlying pricing objective is commercial.
What it means for merchants
Merchants using individualised pricing should inventory every data input, document the business rationale, test for misleading or discriminatory outcomes and clearly disclose when personal data materially changes the price a customer sees.
Read the original announcement
Federal Trade Commission · 28 Oct 2026This brief summarizes the linked primary source. Claims and reported figures have not been independently audited by Payment Guide.