Personalized pricing is “abhorrent,” but FTC limits may increase costs, critics say
Personalized pricing is “abhorrent,” but FTC limits may increase costs, critics say
评论人士称：个性化定价“令人憎恶”，但联邦贸易委员会（FTC）的限制措施可能会增加成本
Some Americans worry that the Federal Trade Commission’s rush to limit personalized pricing in the name of consumer protection could end up killing discounts they depend on or, counterintuitively, raising prices. 一些美国人担心，联邦贸易委员会（FTC）以保护消费者为名，急于限制个性化定价，最终可能会导致他们所依赖的折扣消失，或者反直觉地推高价格。
The FTC has no power to ban personalized pricing, in which a business uses a customer’s personal data to determine the highest price that person might be willing to pay for a product or service. But the agency believes it could set limits on the practice, including potential penalties for businesses that fail to disclose when customers may be paying more because data suggests they won’t balk at the price. FTC无权禁止个性化定价（即企业利用客户的个人数据来确定该人愿意为产品或服务支付的最高价格）。但该机构认为，它可以对这种做法设定限制，包括对那些未能披露“因数据表明客户不会拒绝该价格而导致其支付更多费用”的企业进行潜在处罚。
In a request for public comment on a proposed policy statement, the FTC acknowledged that personalized pricing is common in some industries. But FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said new industries are increasingly tracking customers to set individualized prices, blindsiding consumers who expect a listed price in markets like retail “to be the same price that everyone else sees,” Ferguson said. 在就拟议的政策声明征求公众意见时，FTC承认个性化定价在某些行业很常见。但FTC主席安德鲁·弗格森（Andrew Ferguson）表示，越来越多的新兴行业正在追踪客户以设定个性化价格，这让那些期望在零售等市场看到的标价“与其他人看到的价格相同”的消费者感到措手不及。
“The FTC does not have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances, but 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 other laws we enforce,” Ferguson said. Members of the public were given 30 days to submit comments on the proposed change in enforcement. 弗格森说：“FTC没有法律权力在所有情况下禁止个性化定价，但如果企业未能告知消费者其个人数据是如何被用于定价的，则可能违反《联邦贸易委员会法》及我们执行的其他法律。”公众有30天的时间就拟议的执法变更提交意见。
FTC’s plan to combat surveillance pricing
FTC打击“监控定价”的计划
The FTC said that there’s little economic research on how personalized pricing is impacting consumers, and it’s unclear how many businesses may be using it. But “the rise of data-driven ‘personalized pricing’ has the potential to transform our history of relatively limited variation in pricing from one consumer to the next,” the FTC’s policy statement said, potentially propping up more monopolists. FTC表示，目前关于个性化定价如何影响消费者的经济研究很少，也不清楚有多少企业在使用它。但FTC的政策声明称，“数据驱动的‘个性化定价’的兴起，有可能改变我们历史上消费者之间价格差异相对有限的局面”，并可能助长更多的垄断者。
What research does exist, the FTC said, suggests that “while personalized pricing is likely to increase business profits, benefits to some consumers are accompanied by losses to other consumers and that the more sophisticated personalized pricing practices become, the less likely consumers are to benefit.” FTC表示，现有的研究表明，“虽然个性化定价可能会增加企业利润，但部分消费者的获益伴随着其他消费者的损失，而且个性化定价做法越复杂，消费者获益的可能性就越小。”
If the public agrees with the FTC’s plan, personalized pricing could be found to violate the FTC Act when a seller misrepresents a price as static or widely available when it is actually personalized. That’s misleading, the FTC said, since customers who know how prices are set could take defensive measures, such as using a private browsing session or a virtual private network to mask their browsing history. Or they could choose to avoid sites that use personalized pricing altogether. 如果公众同意FTC的计划，那么当卖家将个性化价格虚假地描述为固定价格或广泛适用的价格时，该行为可能被认定违反《联邦贸易委员会法》。FTC表示，这具有误导性，因为了解定价方式的客户可以采取防御措施，例如使用隐私浏览会话或虚拟专用网络（VPN）来掩盖其浏览历史。或者，他们可以选择完全避开使用个性化定价的网站。
Additionally, the FTC wants businesses that use personalized pricing to disclose what data is used to set an individual’s price and to get consent to collect data for personalized pricing purposes. That would ensure businesses aren’t hiding the factors that influence pricing, the FTC said. 此外，FTC要求使用个性化定价的企业披露用于设定个人价格的数据，并获得收集此类数据用于个性化定价目的的同意。FTC表示，这将确保企业不会隐瞒影响定价的因素。
The agency explained that “consumers who reasonably believe that a personalized price is a discount based on their purchase history with that retailer when it is in fact a higher price based on information about their disposable income or their shopping habits with other firms, for example, may be deceived into not taking action to avoid the personalized price.” 该机构解释说：“例如，消费者如果合理地认为个性化价格是基于其在该零售商的购买历史而给予的折扣，但实际上该价格是基于其可支配收入或与其他公司的购物习惯等信息而设定的更高价格，那么他们可能会被误导，从而不采取措施来规避这种个性化定价。”
These disclosures would further give customers a chance to dispute incorrect data influencing their prices, the FTC said, or to “avoid the collection of that data in the first place.” FTC表示，这些披露将进一步让客户有机会对影响其价格的不准确数据提出异议，或者“从一开始就避免这些数据的收集”。
“Many Americans do not understand just how much data they generate every second of their lives,” the policy statement said. “Nor do they necessarily understand how those data are collected and stored, to whom they may be sold, or how they may be used—including, potentially, to price products and services uniquely for them on the basis of their intimate details.” 政策声明称：“许多美国人并不了解他们每时每刻产生的数据量有多大。他们也不一定了解这些数据是如何被收集和存储的，可能被卖给谁，或者如何被使用——包括可能基于他们的隐私细节为他们量身定制产品和服务价格。”
Early commenters loathe predatory pricing
早期评论者厌恶掠夺性定价
The FTC listed several examples of businesses that could violate the FTC Act if they used personalized pricing in ways the agency deems misleading. If a food delivery service raises prices because its data shows a customer may be unable to leave home, that would be deceptive. So would a grocery chain charging a family more for milk because data reveals they have more children. It would also be misleading if a hotel quoted a higher price after learning that a guest was traveling for a funeral and had few nearby options. FTC列举了几个如果以该机构认为具有误导性的方式使用个性化定价，就可能违反《联邦贸易委员会法》的企业案例。如果一家食品配送服务公司因为数据表明客户可能无法离家而提高价格，那就是欺骗行为。连锁杂货店因为数据揭示一个家庭孩子较多而向其收取更高的牛奶价格也是如此。如果一家酒店在得知客人是去参加葬礼且附近选择很少后报出更高的价格，这也具有误导性。
Even certain practices in industries where personalized pricing is more expected, like the rideshare industry, could be found in violation, the FTC said. For example, it would be deceptive if Uber charged a customer more after determining that no rival rideshare apps were installed on that person’s phone. FTC表示，即使在个性化定价更为常见的行业（如网约车行业），某些做法也可能被认定为违规。例如，如果Uber在确定某人的手机上没有安装竞争对手的网约车应用后向其收取更多费用，这将是欺骗性的。
So far, dozens of Americans have submitted comments, and the majority want to see the FTC heavily regulate personalized pricing, which they view as discriminatory. The practice is “atrocious” and “abhorrent” and an “egregious affront to consumer privacy and protections” that “should not be tolerated,” these commenters agreed. 到目前为止，已有数十名美国人提交了意见，大多数人希望FTC对个性化定价进行严格监管，他们认为这种做法具有歧视性。这些评论者一致认为，这种做法“极其恶劣”、“令人憎恶”，是对消费者隐私和保护的“严重冒犯”，是“不应被容忍的”。
Low-income people seem most at risk of being disadvantaged, commenters suggested, as well as “naïve young people,” “poor people with limited access to information,” and “trusting seniors.” At the bare minimum, the FTC should ensure that personalized pricing cannot use a person’s race, gender, religion, or sexual preferences as a factor, commenters said. And to the furthest extent possible, the FTC should end the practice, the majority agreed. 评论者指出，低收入群体似乎最容易处于不利地位，此外还有“天真的年轻人”、“信息获取渠道有限的穷人”以及“容易轻信的老年人”。评论者表示，最起码，FTC应确保个性化定价不能将个人的种族、性别、宗教或性取向作为考量因素。大多数人一致认为，FTC应尽可能彻底终结这种做法。
“What is the point of trying to build a stable financial life if the cost of goods and services is no longer tied to a broader market but to a single person?” one anonymous commenter asked. “This practice undermines fair markets by replacing transparent pricing with hidden, data-driven discrimination between buyers,” another supportive commenter, Sarah Burdell, said. 一位匿名评论者问道：“如果商品和服务的成本不再与更广泛的市场挂钩，而是与个人挂钩，那么努力建立稳定的财务生活还有什么意义？”另一位支持者莎拉·伯德尔（Sarah Burdell）表示：“这种做法用隐藏的、数据驱动的买家歧视取代了透明定价，从而破坏了公平市场。”