FTC Orders Nine Major Companies to Disclose How Algorithms Shape Prices and Pay

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered nine of the country's best-known airlines, ride-share firms and retailers to explain how they use algorithms and loyalty programs to set prices for customers and pay for drivers. The companies named in the inquiry are Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart.

The move follows earlier investigations and lawsuits that accused businesses of charging consumers different prices based on their purchasing histories, and of paying drivers different fares based on their personal histories.

FTC chair Andrew Ferguson said in a statement that 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."

According to the FTC, the companies must hand over information that lets the agency judge whether the price of a ticket, ride, food delivery or other product or service differs from one person to another. The agency pointed to factors such as participation in loyalty programs or the analysis of personal data by what it called super-intelligence algorithms.

The inquiry arrives as American household budgets remain strained by inflation. Critics say shoppers are being squeezed by opaque and at times deceptive pricing practices, including surveillance pricing and overcharges at Dollar General and convenience stores.

The FTC's authority has limits. It polices unfair or deceptive acts or practices in most industries, but banking and airlines are excluded. That means it cannot impose fines or regulations on the three airlines named in the inquiry. Although the Trump administration has rolled back corporate regulations, the agency's consumer protection division has in some instances joined with states to pursue legal action and penalties against certain companies.

Several states have started to introduce legislation that would ban surveillance pricing, as well as electronic shelf labels that could be used to set different prices based on shoppers' habits and online information.

The new probe builds on a July 2024 inquiry launched under the Biden administration, which sought information from McKinsey, JPMorgan Chase and others that sold surveillance pricing products to consumer-facing companies. In January 2025, the FTC found that details such as a person's precise location or browser history can frequently be used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services.

Whether the latest inquiry will lead to meaningful changes in consumer law or corporate behavior remains unclear. Rohit Chopra, a former FTC commissioner who now heads California's new Business and Consumer Protection Agency, was skeptical. "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," he said.