Two shoppers can open the same store on the same day and see different prices for the same item. Nothing about the product changed. What changed is what the store knows about each shopper. The Federal Trade Commission wants companies to say that out loud.

On August 19, 2026, the Commission voted to release a proposed enforcement policy statement on personalized pricing, which the FTC defines as using personal data to set a price based on what a company believes one individual is willing to spend. The original public comment window ran through September 18, and the Commission extended it by seven days. The new deadline is September 25, 2026.

That window is one of the few moments when ordinary shoppers can weigh in before a rule about how they are priced takes shape. Anyone can submit a comment through the federal docket, FTC-2026-1057. Submitting a comment is not a claim for money and carries no payout. It is a way to tell the agency what you think, and the time to do it is running out.

What companies would have to tell you

The proposal does not ban personalized pricing. The FTC acknowledges it lacks the authority to outlaw the practice outright. What the Commission wants instead is disclosure, and the draft asks for three specific things: that the price is personalized, the basis for the personalization, and the types of data used to arrive at the price.

According to the draft statement, failing to make those disclosures is likely to count as an unfair or deceptive act under Section 5 of the FTC Act. The Commission says it intends to direct enforcement resources accordingly. The reasoning is plain. People expect prices to move with supply and demand. They do not expect the number on a checkout page to shift because of their purchase history, their location data, or a model's estimate of how likely they are to shop around. When a retailer lets shoppers believe a price is standard while it is actually tailored, the FTC says that can mislead.

The draft also warns against dressing personalization up as generosity. Presenting a higher price built on income data as a discount based on loyalty history would fall into the same bucket as hiding the personalization entirely.

Why this should matter to you

The people most exposed to opaque pricing are the people who shop almost entirely online, on phones, inside apps that already collect enormous amounts of data about them. That describes an entire generation of shoppers.

The disclosure standard sounds modest until you picture it in practice. A checkout page would have to admit, in plain language, that the price you see is not the price everyone sees, and that your data helped set it. You could still buy the item, but you would buy it knowing what the store knows about you. Today you do not get that chance.

There is a fairness problem underneath the paperwork, too. Personalized pricing rewards the seller's information advantage, and information advantages are rarely spread evenly. A shopper who rarely buys from a store looks price-sensitive and might get a lower number. A regular customer who always pays full price looks willing to spend more and might get a higher one. The data turns loyalty into a reason to charge more, and it does it silently. Disclosure will not fix that incentive, but it drags it into the open where shoppers and regulators can see it.

The gaps the proposal leaves

This proposal is not a ban, and the FTC says so itself. A company that discloses its personalized pricing fully and clearly would be complying with the draft. Some states are already going further on their own. New Jersey recently enacted the Fair Price Protection Act, which prohibits using personal data to set prices for groceries and certain household goods, according to a legal analysis of the federal proposal. New York already has its own disclosure requirements in effect.

That patchwork is exactly why the federal comment period matters. The proposal was approved by a 2-0 Commission vote, and the agency is now testing where the line should sit between letting companies price freely and letting shoppers understand the price in front of them. A strong disclosure rule would set a floor every state can build on. A weak one would let the practice continue mostly unchanged, wrapped in fine print.

The deadline is September 25, 2026. If you have ever wondered whether the price you were shown was really the price, this is the week to say so. More detail on the proposal is available in the FTC's press release: FTC Extends Public Comment on Proposed Policy Statement Regarding Personalized Pricing.