Correction — October 14, 2026. An earlier version put these events a year too early, conflated two different matters, and presented personal-data targeting as established. This version corrects the dates and scope. The existing URL is retained, but its “price-fixing” wording should not be read as a court finding.
Different prices for identical groceries are worth investigating. So are misleading fees and subscription terms. They are not automatically the same case.
What the price investigation established
Consumer Reports published its investigation with Groundwork Collaborative on December 9, 2025. Its coordinated shopping tests involved 437 volunteers and found some item prices differing by as much as 23 percent. Participants recorded offered prices; the experiment was not a measurement of a year's completed purchases.
The researchers did not establish that personal or demographic data determined the observed prices. Instacart said assignment to test groups was randomized, and the investigators said their sample could not demonstrate otherwise. A price difference alone does not tell us which information caused it.
On December 22, 2025, Consumer Reports reported Instacart's announcement that it was ending item-price tests on the platform. That is narrower than a claim that every promotion, discount, or pricing tool disappeared.
What the separate FTC settlement covered
The FTC's December 18, 2025 announcement described a $60 million consumer-refund settlement over different allegations: misleading free-delivery claims despite mandatory service fees, misleading satisfaction-guarantee and refund representations, and unclear trial-to-paid subscription enrollment.
That announcement does not establish that the $60 million was compensation for the pricing experiment. It also does not turn allegations about subscription practices into a finding that personal profiles set each shopper's grocery prices.
Read the evidence before drawing the conclusion
For a useful price comparison, keep the retailer, store, product size, time, promotions, and final charges together. A screenshot of one item cannot explain an entire checkout total.
When sharing a report, distinguish the observed result, the company's explanation, and what remains unknown. The source-checking workflow offers a starting point. For corrections to this article, send the passage and supporting record through Contact.