Personalized pricing is “abhorrent,” but FTC limits may increase costs, critics say
Some Americans fear the FTC may be thinking about personalized pricing all wrong.
Critics argue that the Federal Trade Commission's push to restrict personalized pricing may actually lead to increased costs for consumers or the elimination of discounts they rely on. While the FTC doesn't have the authority to outright ban personalized pricing, which involves businesses using a customer's personal data to set prices based on what they're willing to pay, the agency believes it can impose regulations.
These could include penalties for businesses that fail to disclose when customers are paying more due to data indicating they wouldn't mind the price. The FTC acknowledged in a public comment request that personalized pricing is prevalent in certain industries, but Chair Andrew Ferguson expressed concern over new industries tracking customers to set individualized prices.
Ferguson pointed out that consumers expect prices in retail to be uniform, seeing the same price as everyone else.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica Policy's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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