The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday ordered nine of America's biggest consumer-facing companies — Walmart, Target, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, JetBlue, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart — to hand over detailed information about how they use customers' personal data to set prices and gig workers' pay, opening a sweeping inquiry into personalized pricing just days before the November 3 midterm elections.
The orders, issued under Section 6(b) of the FTC Act, give the companies 45 days from receipt to respond. They are the opening move in a formal study, not a finding that any company broke the law — but the agency can ask a federal court to compel compliance if a recipient refuses to cooperate, and the material gathered will shape a published study meant to inform regulators and lawmakers.
The FTC announced the orders on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, in a press release launching a new inquiry into "the use of personal data to set prices and compensation." The Commission approved the orders unanimously, in a 2-0 vote, according to trade-press reporting on the announcement.
The orders cover three airlines (Delta, United and JetBlue), two ride-hailing platforms (Uber and Lyft), two food-delivery platforms (DoorDash and Instacart) and two of the country's largest retailers (Walmart and Target). Together they touch nearly every routine consumer transaction: a plane ticket, a ride across town, a grocery order and a weekly shop.
Each company must document the inputs, tools and procedures it uses to set or adjust prices and pay. The FTC wants the formulas and software behind the numbers, an explanation of which pieces of information vary by customer or worker, how employees can modify or override the results, and where the pricing tools and data originate — including whether outside vendors supply them.
FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson framed the inquiry as a transparency fight. "We intend to 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," Ferguson said in the agency's release. "Consumers deserve to know whether companies use their web surfing habits or other personal data to estimate the highest price they can charge each consumer. Workers also deserve to know if their compensation is affected by how companies use their personal data."
The new orders are not the agency's first look at the practice. A study released in mid-2024 examined personalized pricing through the middleman consultancies that sell pricing tools to businesses — but it stopped short of demanding information from the companies that actually set the prices. The October 28 orders close that gap by going directly to the businesses themselves.
In August 2026, the FTC went further, inviting public comment on a proposed enforcement-policy statement describing how the undisclosed use of personal information to set a unique price for a customer could violate the FTC Act. The new study gives the agency the raw material to decide whether that policy should harden into enforcement.
The timing is political as well as regulatory. Reuters reported that the FTC is flexing its consumer-protection powers ahead of next week's congressional elections, with voters consistently ranking the cost of living as their most important issue. A probe into whether ordinary Americans might be paying different prices for the same product lands squarely in that debate — five days before voters decide control of Congress.
Airlines have already been a flashpoint in the argument. Delta spent much of 2026 denying reports that it was testing AI-driven individualized fares, and in July the carrier's executives wrote to lawmakers to rebut what they called misinformation about AI pricing. That history helps explain why the airline industry features so prominently in the new orders.
At its core, the inquiry asks a simple question with a complicated answer: does the price you see depend on who you are, rather than on what you are buying?
That distinction matters. Ordinary dynamic pricing — a plane ticket that costs more the day before departure, or a ride that surges in the rain — varies with demand, timing and availability, and applies to everyone shopping at the same moment. Personalized pricing, as the FTC defines it, varies from one person to the next for the same product or service, driven by data about the individual: loyalty-program membership, browsing history, location, income signals, or scores produced by AI systems. The orders even ask about analysis by what the agency calls "superintelligence algorithms."
On the worker side, the inquiry mirrors the consumer question. For Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart, the FTC wants to know whether a driver's or courier's pay for the same job varies with personal data — for example, how often they use their phone, or whether they have a history of accepting or turning down offers. Gig workers have long complained that opaque algorithms decide their earnings without explanation; the orders are the first federal attempt to force those formulas into the open.
The scope is deliberately wide. Most requests reach back to January 1, 2023, covering nearly four years of pricing and pay practices, and the agency wants the full chain: the data in, the software in the middle, the human overrides at the end, and the vendors behind it all.
The companies named in the orders did not wait for the 45-day clock to start defending themselves. Delta told reporters there is no fare product it has ever used, is testing or plans to use that targets customers with individualized offers based on personal data. "We have zero tolerance for discriminatory or predatory pricing and fully comply with applicable privacy, pricing and advertising laws," the airline said, pointing to a July 31 letter in which a Delta executive answered what the carrier called misinformation around AI pricing.
JetBlue issued a similar denial, saying it does not use personal information or web-browsing history to set individual prices. "Fares are determined by demand and seat availability, and all customers have access to the same fares" on its website and mobile app, the airline said.
Target pointed to a fact sheet it published on October 15, telling customers: "Target does not use your personal information to raise an item's price. And we don't adjust prices based on the time of day you're shopping or during times of high demand."
The other companies named — United, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart and Walmart — did not immediately respond to requests for comment when the orders were announced. It is important to note what the orders are not: the FTC has not accused any of the nine companies of wrongdoing, and the announcement establishes no violation. The study is designed to find out whether the practices exist before the agency decides what, if anything, to do about them.
For shoppers, the inquiry goes to a suspicion that has grown alongside the data economy: that the price on your screen may not be the price on your neighbor's screen, and that your own data — what you browsed, where you live, how loyal you are — may be the reason. If the FTC's study confirms that individualized pricing is widespread, it could become the factual foundation for new enforcement actions or legislation.
For gig workers, the stakes are arguably higher. A shopper who suspects a higher price can shop elsewhere; a driver whose pay is set by an algorithm has little way to know whether declining one low-paying trip quietly lowered the next offer. Forcing disclosure of pay-setting formulas would give workers, and the regulators who oversee them, their first clear look inside that black box.
For the companies, the orders carry both legal and reputational risk. A 45-day deadline to produce formulas, software details and vendor contracts is a major compliance exercise, and anything the study reveals will arrive in public — just as personalized pricing becomes a campaign-trail issue about the cost of living.
And for the FTC itself, the probe tests a strategy: using its Section 6(b) study power, which requires no allegation of wrongdoing, to build the evidence base for future action. The agency used the same tool for its 2024 middleman study; this time it is aiming at the household names themselves.
The 45-day response clock runs from each company's receipt of its order, putting responses due in mid-December 2026. The FTC will then analyze the material and publish a study for regulators and lawmakers — a document that could recommend enforcement cases, new rules or legislation.
Watch for three things. First, whether any company resists or seeks to narrow its order, which would force the FTC to decide whether to go to federal court to compel compliance. Second, whether the agency's August 2026 enforcement-policy proposal advances into a final statement once the study material arrives. Third, whether the study expands: the FTC chose nine companies across four industries, but its findings could easily prompt a second round of orders to other sectors where personal data meets pricing.
For consumers, the practical advice is unchanged for now: no company has been found to have charged you an individualized price, and the study itself changes nothing about the price you see today. What it may change, over the coming months, is how much companies have to tell you about how that price was set.
It is the practice of setting a different price for the same product or service for different people, based on personal data such as browsing history, location, loyalty-program membership or income signals — rather than on demand, timing or availability, which affect everyone equally.
No. The orders are part of a Section 6(b) study, which gathers information without alleging wrongdoing. The FTC says the material will inform a published study for regulators and lawmakers.
Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart — nine companies across airlines, ride-hailing, food delivery and retail.
Within 45 days of receiving their orders, which puts responses due in mid-December 2026. The FTC can seek a federal court order compelling compliance if a company fails to respond.
Not necessarily, and the FTC has not established that. The study is designed to find out whether and how personal data affects prices and pay. Delta, JetBlue and Target have all denied setting individualized prices using personal data.
Related coverage: DoorDash's $17 billion Instacart deal involves two of the companies named in the orders, and the FTC recently sent $15.8 million to 2.1 million cash-advance users in a separate consumer-protection action.
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