Online retailers which use software and data to target individual customers with personalised prices may soon find themselves in the dock, following the launch of an investigation into the practice by the Office of Fair Trading.
The move follows complaints that some firms are using data gathered from cookies to tailor prices – in many cases by pushing them up – to people who have already visited sites.
The OFT will look at how businesses use such consumer information, including whether they change the prices they offer individual shoppers as a result. It wants to establish whether online retailers are acting outside the law.
OFT chief executive Clive Maxwell said: “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.
“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 authorities.
Last month, many of the UK’s top online retailers were warned by the OFT to improve their pricing transparency, after a probe by the watchdog uncovered a raft of hidden charges.
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