The Federal Trade Commission on Oct. 28 ordered nine large airlines, ride-hail, grocery and delivery companies to produce records on how they use personal data to set consumer prices and worker pay³.

The Section 6(b) orders went to Delta, United, JetBlue, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart, the commission said^3,2. Recipients have 45 days after receiving the orders to respond, and the agency said it can seek a federal court order if a company does not comply^3,4.

The study is not itself a law-enforcement action³. The commission said it wants to know whether prices for tickets, rides, deliveries or other goods vary from person to person based on loyalty-program status or analysis of personal data, including what it called superintelligence algorithms^3,2.

Ride-hail and food-delivery firms may also be asked for the inputs, tools and procedures used to set shifting gig pay, including phone use and past offer-acceptance history, the agency said^3,2. Airlines typically use posted salaries or hourly wages, the release said³.

FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said the agency intends to examine opaque methods some firms may use to set what consumers pay or gig workers earn for the same product or service³. The commission vote to issue the orders was 2-0³.

The Guardian, in the portion of its story that loaded, tied the orders to a July 2024 Biden-era inquiry that sought information from firms that sold surveillance-pricing products, including McKinsey and JPMorgan Chase¹. The Record reported that Ferguson later closed that probe after objecting to former Chair Lina Khan's January 2025 staff findings, which drew on consultancies rather than the retailers and platforms that set prices².

The FTC said the 2024 study examined middleman consultancies and that the agency learned nothing about actual pricing decisions from it³. The new orders, it said, go to companies that may be setting personalized prices themselves^3,4.

In August the commission invited comment on a proposed enforcement policy statement on whether undisclosed use of personal information to set a unique price could violate the FTC Act^3,2. WHIO, citing the same release, said the agency plans a public study for regulators and lawmakers⁴. Reuters first reported the announcement, according to WHIO; the Reuters exclusive was not readable in full here^4,5. Company responses were not in the materials reviewed.