FTC Orders Delta, Walmart and Other Companies to Disclose Use of Personal Data in Pricing

WASHINGTON - According to ABC News, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is ordering Delta Air Lines, Walmart and other companies to provide detailed information on how they use consumers' data when they are setting prices.

The Guardian reported, in a story by Heather Timmons in Washington, that the regulator is demanding that some of the largest airlines, ride-share companies and retailers divulge how they use algorithms and loyalty programs to target customers and drivers with different prices and wages. The report said the demand requires companies to "explain how and why they charge different prices for the same product or service."

The Guardian's summary says nine companies are covered and names Delta, United, JetBlue and Lyft among them, but the list is cut off in the available text, so the full set of companies could not be confirmed from that source. The Guardian's headline also names Uber. ABC News's summary names Walmart and does not give a number of companies, while the visible portion of The Guardian's summary does not mention Walmart.

The two accounts also differ in scope. ABC News described the subject as consumer data used in setting prices, while The Guardian described the use of algorithms and loyalty programs and extended the demand to the wages paid to drivers.

Neither ABC News nor The Guardian, in the summaries available for this report, states the legal authority for the order, any deadline for the companies to respond, or any response from the companies named.

The Federal Chronicle's account is limited to the headlines and summaries that ABC News and The Guardian published and does not reflect the full text of either article.

Sources: ABC News: FTC orders Walmart, Delta and others to share how they use personal data to set prices and pay; The Guardian: FTC orders Delta, Uber and others to hand over data on algorithmic pricing.