FTC orders 8 companies to provide information on 'surveillance pricing' practices

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered information from eight companies that the agency says offer products and services that use personal data to set prices based on a shopper’s individual characteristics. The FTC said on Tuesday it is seeking to better understand the “opaque market” of “surveillance pricing.” It says such products and services include consumer data such as credit history and location to charge different customers different prices for the same goods. The agency has sent orders to Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, JPMorgan Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture and McKinsey & Co. for more information. In response, Revionics said it “does not develop software that recommends pricing targeted to specific individuals.”