Federal Trade Commission

While retail sales are an important economic phenomenon, previous research has not explored how the multiproduct nature of consumers' purchasing decisions affects the pricing dynamics of multiproduct retailers. In this book, we first document the extent to which "sales", defined as temporary discounts in retail price, are a pervasive aspect of retailing and an important source of retail price variation. Using a large data set for 20 categories of grocery products across 30 U. S. metropolitan areas, we find that the majority of price changes and 25%-50% of retail price variation is the result of retail sales. We then develop a model describing the pricing dynamics of multiproduct retailers that is consistent with these empirical pricing regularities. Specifically, because consumers prefer to buy a bundle of goods from the same retailer, a given discount on any one good in the bundle will have a similar effect on consumers' likelihood of visiting that retailer. This implies that discounts on goods sold by a single retailer are substitutes instruments for retailers, and factors that influence one good's price will affect the pricing of other goods. Hence, if intertemporal price changes are a means of price discriminating (as suggested in the literature), the impact of these changes will be reflected in the prices of many goods, including even those for which discrimination is not feasible.

The FTC has been examining the privacy implications of mobile devices since 2000, in the form of workshops, law enforcement actions, consumer education, testimony, and policy reports. On May 30, 2012, the FTC held a workshop entitled "In Short: Advertising and Privacy Disclosures in a Digital World." The concluding panel at that workshop explored how privacy disclosures on mobile devices could be short, effective, and accessible to consumers. Based on more than a decade of work on mobile privacy issues and recent data obtained through panel discussions and comments, the Commission offers this staff report providing recommendations for best practices on mobile privacy disclosures. First, the report reviews the benefits and privacy risks of mobile technologies. Second, it discusses the FTC's efforts to address mobile privacy, as well as its research on disclosure issues generally. It then summarizes general themes raised by panel participants. Finally, it sets forth recommendations for best practices to key commercial players involved in the mobile arena - platforms, app developers, third parties such as ad networks and analytics companies, and trade associations. The recommendations are intended to promote more effective privacy disclosures.