The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched an investigation into how online retailers in the UK are using software and data to target individual customers with personalised prices.
The move could result in the UK regulator using its powers to clamp down on such activities in the future.
The OFT will look at how businesses use consumer information, including whether they change the prices they offer individual shoppers as a result. It is interested to establish whether online retailers are acting outside the law with such practices.
“Innovation online is an important driver of economic growth. Our call for information forms part of our ongoing commitment to build trust in online shopping so that consumers can be confident that businesses are treating them fairly,” said Clive Maxwell, OFT chief executive.
“We know that businesses use information about individual consumers for marketing purposes. This has some important potential benefits to consumers and firms. But the ways in which data is collected and used is evolving rapidly.”
He added: “It is important we understand what control shoppers have over their profile and whether firms are using shoppers’ profiles to charge different prices for goods or services. This call for information will help us understand these practices better and to decide whether or not this is an issue on which the OFT needs to take any action.”
The OFT will be collecting information over the next six months and is interested in hearing from software providers, online retailers, and will also be consulting with the US Federal Trade Commission.
Findings from the investigation will be published in spring 2013.
