The FTC’s public comment window on its proposed Enforcement Policy Statement Regarding Personalized Pricing (Docket No. FTC-2026-1057) closes today, seven days after the original Sept. 18 deadline. What lands on the other side is a disclosure regime that treats individual-price setting as a Section 5 problem unless the business tells the customer it’s happening.
The Commission voted 2-0 on Aug. 19 to publish the draft. Chairman Andrew Ferguson didn’t hedge: “Businesses that fail to tell consumers how their personal data is being used to set a price may be in violation of the FTC Act,” and the “Trump-Vance FTC will not hesitate to enforce the law in this space.”
The draft, per Morgan Lewis, expects a clear and conspicuous notice that a price is personalized, the basis for it, and the data types involved. It isn’t limited to AI-generated prices; it turns on whether personal data drives the price at all. Insurance and credit, where individualized risk legitimately shapes price, are carved out. WilmerHale flags seven non-exhaustive scenarios, including a rideshare user charged more en route to a medical facility. The FTC’s own model-sufficient disclosure reads: “estimated willingness to pay derived from data about that consumer’s previous purchases from the same retailer through the same login account”.
The backdrop matters. In July 2024 the FTC voted 5-0 to issue 6(b) orders to eight surveillance-pricing firms; January 2025 staff findings showed those vendors worked with at least 250 clients, drawing on location, demographics, browsing, mouse movements, and cart contents. New Jersey’s Fair Price Protection Act and a New York statute already exist; the California AG is examining CCPA overlap. Sidley notes policy statements aren’t binding but shape state AG enforcement for decades.
For small B2C operators sending AI-prepared offers, the compliance checkpoint is the human approval step. That’s how LemonLime is built: it prepares finished outreach and promotions, and the owner approves and triggers every send. Prior coverage: initial small-business notice, comment-window extension, six-days-out deadline warning.
Sources
- FTC Extends Public Comment on Proposed Policy Statement, FTC
- FTC Seeks Comment on Enforcement Policy Statement, FTC
- FTC Proposes Enforcement Policy on Personalized Pricing, Morgan Lewis
- Personalized Pricing, Sidley Austin
- FTC Issues Proposed Policy Statement on Personalized Pricing, WilmerHale
