The FTC’s public comment window on its proposed enforcement policy for personalized pricing closes today, ending a 37-day drafting theater that started with a 2-0 Commission vote on August 19 and a seven-day extension granted September 3 that pushed the original September 18 deadline to September 25.
What emerges next is a Section 5 framework with real teeth. Morgan Lewis reads the proposal as a three-part disclosure requirement: any business setting a price using personal data must disclose that the price is personalized, the basis for personalization, and the data types used. Miss any of the three, and you’re exposed to an unfair-or-deceptive-acts claim. Chairman Andrew Ferguson has said the FTC “will not hesitate to enforce the law in this space.”
The scope is wider than the “AI pricing” headlines suggest. Morgan Lewis flags food delivery, grocery, hotels, rideshare, and home security as covered sectors, and the policy reaches loyalty-program discounts framed as individualized offers. It isn’t an algorithm rule. It’s a personal-data rule.
WilmerHale notes the Commission concedes it can’t ban personalized pricing outright, which is why this arrives as a disclosure regime rather than a prohibition. Disclosure regimes are easier to build and easier to litigate against: don’t outlaw the practice, force the price tag into daylight.
DLA Piper warns of overlapping state regimes in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland using conflicting terminology, a compliance mess that arrives before any federal text is locked. For context, see the initial notice and disclosure exposure, the extension mechanics, and last week’s six-days-out warning.
The comment period was the easy part. The audit is the work.
Sources
- https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/09/ftc-extends-public-comment-proposed-policy-statement-regarding-personalized-pricing
- https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/08/ftc-seeks-comment-enforcement-policy-statement-regarding-personalized-pricing
- https://www.dlapiper.com/en-us/insights/publications/2026/09/ftc-seeks-comment-on-proposed-enforcement-policy-statement-regarding-personalized-pricing
- https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2026/08/ftc-proposes-enforcement-policy-on-personalized-pricing-seeks-public-comment
- https://www.wilmerhale.com/en/insights/blogs/wilmerhale-privacy-and-cybersecurity-law/20260827-ftc-issues-proposed-policy-statement-on-personalized-pricing
Sources
- FTC Extends Public Comment on Proposed Policy Statement Regarding Personalized Pricing
- FTC Seeks Comment on Enforcement Policy Statement Regarding Personalized Pricing
- DLA Piper — FTC seeks comment on proposed enforcement policy statement
- Morgan Lewis — FTC Proposes Enforcement Policy on Personalized Pricing
- WilmerHale — FTC Issues Proposed Policy Statement on Personalized Pricing
