AIBRIEF
A draft policy would treat undisclosed 'personalized pricing' as a possible deceptive practice. The agency says it cannot ban the practice outright.
Two browsers see the same hotel room at two different prices. The site has been reading one's data to guess what they'll pay. The Federal Trade Commission just opened a 30-day public comment on whether that practice, when undisclosed, should count as a deceptive practice under the FTC Act.
The Commission voted 2-0 to publish a Federal Register notice on a draft enforcement policy statement on "personalized pricing", the FTC's term for setting prices based on what a company believes an individual consumer is willing to pay. The comment window opens once the Federal Register publishes the notice.
Chairman Andrew Ferguson framed the issue around consumer expectations: people assume the listed price is the same price everyone sees. The proposed statement says undisclosed collection or use of personal data for that pricing could violate the FTC Act's prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices.
The agency drew a line: it does not have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances, the press release says. The statement targets undisclosed or deceptive uses, not differential pricing as a category. The action is a signal of enforcement intent, not a new rule or a price floor.
Open questions: the second commissioner's identity, when the Federal Register notice publishes, and which sectors the agency sees as the likeliest first targets after comments close.