HEDNA SIGNAL News

FTC Names Hotels in Proposed Personalized Pricing Policy

The Commission voted 2–0 on August 19 to seek comment on a policy statement treating undisclosed personalized pricing as a likely Section 5 violation. One of its seven examples is a hotel.

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The full HEDNA Signal report is a member benefit: all seven scenarios quoted, the complete record from 2024 to now, where the standard lands by party, and the seven questions the statement leaves open. What happened is below, free to read.

For the Global Hotel Distribution Community

AUGUST 20, 2026

What happened

A disclosure standard, not a ban

On August 19, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission voted 2–0 to issue a proposed enforcement policy statement on personalized pricing and to open it for public comment. The matter number is P034101.

The statement says Congress has not given the Commission authority to prohibit personalized pricing outright. It sets a disclosure standard instead. Where consumers reasonably expect that a price will not vary based on their personal data, a business that personalizes should disclose three things, clearly and conspicuously: that the price is personalized, the basis for it, and the types of data it draws on. Failing to disclose them, the statement says, is likely an unfair or deceptive act or practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act.

Prices that move with supply and demand across a market are treated separately, as are products such as insurance and credit that price on individual characteristics by design. The statement confers no rights and binds nobody; in any enforcement action the Commission must still prove a violation of an existing legal requirement.

The examples

Seven scenarios. One is a hotel.

The statement lists non-exhaustive scenarios in which personalized pricing without adequate disclosure would raise Section 5 concerns. It describes them as presented for discussion purposes only, and not as definitive statements of the Commission on the legality of the practices identified.

“A hotel charging a higher price to a consumer on the basis of data personal to that consumer leading the hotel to believe that the consumer is traveling for a funeral or some other can’t-miss personal business.”
Proposed Enforcement Policy Statement, Section III — quoted verbatim

The other six name a food delivery company, a grocery chain, two rideshare scenarios and two retailers. All six are quoted in full in the member report.

What happens next

Two dates decide the rest

The comment period runs 30 days from the date the notice appears in the Federal Register — not from the August 19 announcement.

Pending
Publication in the Federal Register. As of August 20, 2026, the notice had not appeared, so the comment clock had not started.
FR + 30 days
Comments close. Submissions go to Docket FTC-2026-1057 at regulations.gov and are published on the public record.

The Commission has not said whether or when it will finalize the statement. The announcement gives no timetable.

Related reading

HEDNA Pulse — “The Line Between Personalization and Surveillance Pricing” (June 2026)

The Pulse brief set out the distinction between dynamic, personalized and surveillance pricing, and surveyed the case law and state legislative landscape. The FTC’s statement draws its scope along the same line, and adds a federal consumer-protection track to a picture that was, at publication, largely antitrust and state law.

Sources

Primary sources

The member report traces every claim above, plus the 2024 6(b) study, the Fees Rule and the comment docket.

Members

Inside the full report

Nine pages, reported for the HEDNA community and traced to source.

  • All seven illustrative scenarios, quoted in full
  • The complete record — the 2024 surveillance-pricing study, the Fees Rule covering short-term lodging, and every date from July 2024 to now
  • Where the standard lands for hotels, technology providers and intermediaries
  • The disclosure test the statement sets, with the example it gives each way
  • The seven things the statement does not settle
  • Every source, traced and linked
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Reported for the HEDNA community. Factual summary — not legal advice. Sources linked above.

Reported, not editorialised. HEDNA takes no position on the developments described.

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