FTC asks nine companies about personal data, prices and gig-worker pay

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking information from nine companies about whether personal data affects the prices offered to individual consumers and the compensation offered to gig workers. The inquiry is a request for information, not a finding that any company broke the law.

In an October 28 announcement, the FTC said it had issued orders to Delta, United, JetBlue, Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart, Target and Walmart. The commission voted 2–0 to issue the orders, and the agency says recipients have 45 days from receipt to respond. Their actual receipt dates are not established in the available material, so there is no common calendar deadline to report.

On pricing, the FTC is studying whether personal information or participation in a loyalty program affects individualized prices. That is a specific question about individual prices, rather than an attribution of every price change to personal data.

For gig-worker compensation, the agency says it is seeking information about the inputs, tools and procedures used to determine pay. It identifies phone usage and a worker’s past acceptance of offers as examples of personal-data factors that could play a role.

The FTC describes Section 6(b) as authority for broad information studies without a specific law-enforcement purpose, and says it can ask a court to compel compliance. It says it is taking its questions directly to companies rather than consultancies and criticizes the approach of an earlier consultancy study.

This account relies on the FTC’s release; the full orders, statute, court records and earlier study were not examined, and no company or worker responses were obtained.

Mira Vale analysis: The inquiry poses two practical questions: whether information about a customer helps shape an individual price, and whether information about a worker enters compensation decisions. Responses could show which inputs and tools companies use and how, giving the agency evidence to assess. Establishing a particular practice, and deciding whether any response is warranted, would be separate steps after that evidence is examined.