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# Javier Palomarez: Trump FTC Disappoints with Khan-tinued Biz Reg
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/javier-palomarez-trump-ftc-disappoints-with-khan-tinued-biz-reg/
- Published: 2026-10-13T18:41:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T18:41:45.000Z
- Description: FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson's proposed disclosure rules for personalized pricing risk doing the opposite
- Author: Javier Palomarez
- Tags: Expert Opinion, #with-siderail, Andrew Ferguson, Lina Khan, FTC

**Andrew Ferguson** wanted American businesses to understand exactly the kind of Federal Trade Commission Chairman he intended to be. 

He promised to “Reverse **Lina Khan’s** Anti-Business Agenda.” He pledged to “provide businesses with the certainty they need.” After four years of an FTC that routinely overreached, those pledges were welcome.

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That is why the FTC’s latest move is so disappointing.

Last month, Chairman Ferguson issued a draft enforcement statement aimed at businesses that use consumer data to personalize price offers and deals for different customers. He concedes that the FTC does not have “the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances,” but claims that “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.” 

At first glance, the concern is understandable. Americans are struggling as the cost of living ranks as a top concern. Nobody wants a company to quietly use their personal data to charge them more. If businesses deceive customers or manipulate prices in illegal ways, the FTC should act against these malicious actors.

But it doesn't stop there. The FTC’s proposed disclosure mandate casts a broad net, sweeping ordinary discounts into the same enforcement framework. A business might offer someone a better price because they are a new consumer or a loyal customer, or because they are looking for a deal, because it believes a personalized price offer could earn or win back a customer’s business. These are not malicious pricing schemes. They are the kind of deals and offers that incentivize foot traffic and sales, and keep businesses–especially small businesses, many of which rely on these discounts–up and running. 

For a large corporation with an army of attorneys, figuring out exactly what to disclose may be just another compliance expense. For Main Street (small businesses), the backbone of the American economy, lacking in-house legal counsel can mean the FTC’s broad enforcement becomes a heavy burden to bear. 

The chilling effect is that small businesses may stop offering personalized deals altogether, fearing their disclosures would not be deemed adequate by the FTC. This disadvantages them against larger competitors, draining them of the foot traffic and sales needed to stay afloat. Likewise, customers are left with fewer choices and higher prices that would have otherwise been discounted. That hurts the very consumer the FTC supposedly tries to protect.

Even businesses confident they can meet compliance burdens face another issue with every new disclosure requirement: More notices. More fine print. More boxes for consumers to click through before receiving an offer. Most Americans do not study every privacy notice they see; they click through and move on. Adding another layer of mandatory disclosure may give regulators more legal language on a screen, but it can desensitize users to other messages and does not necessarily give consumers more meaningful information.

 When Lina Khan led the FTC, she pursued an anti-business effort against what she termed “surveillance pricing.” In January 2025, the FTC under her leadership released preliminary “research summaries” examining the practice. Then-Commissioner Ferguson objected. He rightly criticized the agency for “\[p\]ublishing ‘ideas’ and ‘initial observations’ accompanied by hypothetical use cases rather than robust factual findings.” 

“The Commission should allow staff to do its work and issue a final, fact-based report, rather than rush to meet a nakedly political deadline to present something, anything, to the public.”

Yet the Chairman’s own draft statement on personalized pricing still leans on “hypothetical use cases rather than robust factual findings.” Instead of hard evidence of whether businesses use personal data to raise prices, Americans are presented with alarming scenarios, including speculation that someone traveling for a funeral could be charged more because a company knows why they are traveling. If that is happening, show us, and hold that company accountable. Washington should not build a broad new enforcement regime around what could happen and leave every business in America to figure out whether an ordinary discount will invite federal scrutiny. 

The FTC has no shortage of actual deceptive pricing to pursue, including under its rule against misleading prices for live-event tickets and short-term lodging. Yet more than a year after the rule took effect, consumers can still find hotels–including in the FTC's own backyard–advertising one price only to add mandatory fees later in the transaction. These are the kinds of practices that the FTC should target.

Of course the FTC should protect consumers. But protecting consumers doesn’t require threatening businesses for offering better prices. Go after deception. Go after hidden fees. Go after companies that actually break the law. Leave the discounts alone.

Chairman Ferguson came into office promising to leave Lina Khan’s anti-business approach behind and restore certainty for American businesses. He should live up to that promise.

***Javier Palomarez is the President & CEO of the***[ ***United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC),*** ](http://www.ushbc.com/?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com)***a leading voice for small businesses in national media, whose opinions have been sought after by the world’s top media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, NBC, FOX Network, and the BBC. He is an acclaimed spokesperson for small business and entrepreneurship, as well as a nationally recognized leader in the Hispanic community, being recognized as one of America’s most influential Hispanics for over a decade. The son of Mexican immigrants, Mr. Palomarez was raised in South Texas. This Expert Opinion is Exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.***

***Broadband Breakfast accepts commentary from informed observers of the broadband scene. Please send pieces to*** [***commentary@breakfast.media***](mailto:commentary@breakfast.media)***. The views expressed in Expert Opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Broadband Breakfast and Breakfast Media LLC.***