A landmark class action accuses JetBlue of using PROS Holdings software to set individualized fares from behavioral data — the same company the FTC subpoenaed in 2024. California just got a new law for exactly this problem, though the AG's probe hasn't left the inquiry stage.

On April 18, a JetBlue customer posted on X that a flight they were watching had jumped $230 overnight. JetBlue's official account replied: try clearing your cache and cookies, or book in incognito. The post was deleted within hours. The lawsuit was filed four days later.

Andrew Phillips v. JetBlue Airways Corporation, filed April 22 in the Eastern District of New York (docket 1:26-cv-02405), accuses the airline of embedding behavioral analytics firm FullStory and pricing software vendor PROS Holdings into its website and app to collect customer data — browsing behavior, device type, purchase history — without adequate disclosure, then use it to set individualized fares. Legal observers have called it one of the first class actions in U.S. history targeting surveillance pricing specifically. Claims include violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and New York's deceptive-trade-practices statute; the case is at early stage, with no class certification or motion-to-dismiss ruling yet on the docket.

The PROS Holdings thread is where the cap-table reality gets interesting. The Houston-based company had already been subpoenaed by the FTC in July 2024 as part of a Section 6(b) investigation into eight intermediaries — including Mastercard, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase, and McKinsey — that sell AI-driven individualized pricing tools to retailers. The FTC released initial findings in January 2025, documenting how those tools use inputs ranging from IP addresses and device types to "financial sensitivity" profiles and shopping-cart abandonment behavior to identify each shopper's maximum willingness to pay. No enforcement action against any of the eight has been publicly announced.

California moved on the legislative track. AB 325, the Preventing Algorithmic Price Fixing Act, was signed by Gov. Newsom on October 6, 2025, and took effect January 1, 2026, amending the Cartwright Act to ban pricing algorithms that use competitor data to set or stabilize prices. Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigative sweep on January 27 — Data Privacy Day — sending inquiry letters to grocery, retail, and hotel chains. As of this week, the probe remains at the inquiry-letter stage; no civil complaint or subpoena has been publicly filed.

There are real limits to both actions. Bonta's scope as publicly disclosed doesn't explicitly cover airlines, which is where the most prominent litigation is now moving. And the FTC's 2025 study targeted the intermediary vendors — the tool-sellers — not the retailers actually setting the prices, a layer of indirection that has so far insulated end-users from direct federal action. Delta partnered with Israeli AI firm Fetcherr on personalized pricing before backing away after public scrutiny; Delta told senators it never deployed individualized fares. The industry's posture, as KQED's Morgan Sung reported Sunday, is to deny the practice while the infrastructure for it quietly multiplies.

What to watch: whether the JetBlue case survives a motion to dismiss on the ECPA claims; whether Bonta's letters escalate to subpoenas; and whether PROS Holdings — appearing simultaneously in a federal class action and an FTC inquiry — becomes the clearest documented case of what this infrastructure actually looks like when it surfaces in court.