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FTC investigates whether surveillance pricing boosts costs for consumers

Image of FTC Chair Lina Kahn.
Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Surveillance pricing, dynamic pricing or price optimization – whatever it is being called, the FTC is talking a closer look.

Federal regulators want to know how JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard and other companies may use people’s personal data to sell them a product at a different price to that which other consumers might be seeing. 

The practice is something the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calls “surveillance pricing,” but is also