Sixteen state attorneys general are urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to amend its Rule on Unfair and Deceptive Fees to apply to the online food delivery industry. AGs from New York, Tennessee, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Washington sent a letter providing comment on the agency’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Unfair or Deceptive Fees in Online Food Delivery Services.
In the letter, they point to explosive growth in the industry in recent years, noting that they have become an essential feature of many consumers’ lives. They expressed concern that the law is not keeping up with unique harms flowing from newer technologies. Specific issues they call out are drip pricing, markups and price differentials, the use of dynamic pricing and personalized pricing. They noted that consumers cannot meaningfully avoid personalized pricing they do not know about.
“Moreover, the data that companies use to offer personalized prices, from what source companies acquire that data, and how that data influences prices, are all material conditions that consumers must understand to make informed purchasing decisions,” they said.
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