FTC Demands Pricing Data From Walmart, Uber and Seven Other Companies

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is demanding information from Walmart, Uber and seven other companies on whether and how they use consumers' personal data, such as location, browsing history and income, to set individual prices, wages and job offers, a senior FTC official said Wednesday. Target, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Delta, United and JetBlue are also receiving demands, the official said. The agency will use the responses to eventually publish a study to inform regulators and lawmakers about personalized pricing and wage-setting. It is seeking comprehensive details on the tools, strategies and data the companies use and how they affect prices, wages and job offers. Concern has grown that algorithmic and AI-based pricing lets companies charge each shopper the maximum he or she would pay, and such practices are hard to see from outside. State lawmakers have increasingly tried to ban personalized pricing and algorithmic wage-setting. Separately, Walmart announced its lowest price yet, $35, for a 26-item Thanksgiving meal basket, and its U.S. CEO, David Guggina, discussed pricing in an interview.

The left-leaning NBC News piece, from TODAY, does not mention the FTC action in the portion provided. It leads with Walmart's $35 Thanksgiving basket and Savannah Sellers' interview with Guggina on keeping prices down as costs rise and whether Walmart will use dynamic pricing through digital shelf labels. The right-leaning New York Post and Newsmax lead with the FTC demand. The Post adds the most detail: a senior FTC official as its source, the full list of companies, the planned study, and the political context of congressional elections next week, with cost of living voters' top issue. Newsmax's excerpt is shorter and uses the word "probes." Both name Walmart and Uber first, and neither features a company executive. The outlets overlap on Walmart and on pricing, but they differ on the main subject: Walmart's own account of affordability versus a regulator's demand for data. Reuters, in the alternative group, largely matches the right's FTC framing.