Lindsay Owens

Owens says her organization estimates the 'annoyance economy' costs Americans $165 billion a year in lost time and money.

“the annoyance economy, which is things like fighting chatbots for refunds, is costing Americans $165 billion every single year”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:43:29

Owens argues income and willingness to pay differ, so surveillance pricing exploits desperation rather than only charging the rich more.

“income and willingness to pay are not the same thing, right? Like that's the key here”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:39:37

Owens argues corporate America has built a surveillance state rivaling what governments could build.

“corporate America is now built a kind of surveillance state that rivals what any government could build”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:22:52

Owens recommends consumers run their own experiments, such as having friends all check Uber prices at once and booking the cheapest.

“turn the experiment back around on these companies. They figure out how much they can charge you by running experiments on you. Run experiments on them”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:15:46

Owens called on Walmart to withdraw or relinquish its patents and allow a third-party audit of its pricing algorithms if it truly does not use them.

“bring in an auditor who tells us like, here's what the electronic shelf label algorithm is doing”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:02:34

Owens says Walmart has filed dozens of patents over the past decade for collecting biometric data such as heart rate, glucose levels and retinal scans.

“there are dozens of patents over the last decade that Walmart has filed for cataloging all sorts of information about how you look biometric information”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 47:25

Owens states that every Walmart in the country will have electronic shelf labels by the end of 2026.

“by the end of 2026, every Walmart in the country will have electronic shelf labels instead of paper stickers”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 6:45

Owens urges Congress to use subpoena power to make CEOs of Walmart, DoorDash and Uber explain their pricing algorithms.

“put the CEO of Walmart in the hot seat and said, tell me what's going on with Sparky”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:49:28

Owens recounts that corporate lobbyists delay, weaken or load bills with loopholes as they move through Congress.

“armies of lawyers and lobbyists on behalf of corporate America will descend on the Capitol like vultures”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 15:03

Owens argues AI agents marketed as personal assistants actually work for their platforms or advertisers rather than the user.

“they're calling themselves agents and they're saying they're your assistant, but actually they don't work for you, right?”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:36:19

Owens warns AI shopping agents could become extraordinarily effective at upselling consumers.

“we could be unleashing what I view as the most sophisticated snake oil salesman the world has ever known”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:05:06

Owens argues that airlines originated and exported the worst pricing practices, including dynamic pricing and unbundling.

“all of the tricks that companies use originated in the airlines”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:12:52

Owens argues electronic shelf labels are infrastructure that could allow dynamic pricing across the whole economy.

“electronic shelf labels are the digital infrastructure to price everything in the economy dynamically”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 7:41

Owens says New York's surveillance pricing ban has passed the legislature and Governor Hochul has until year's end to sign it, and predicts other states would follow.

“It would be a total ban on surveillance pricing in the entire state of New York. So it would be a huge move forward for consumers”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:46:52

Owens says 30% of Kroger's net operating income comes from its alternative profits business, which includes selling customer data.

“30% of Kroger's net operating income comes from what they call their alternative profits book of business”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:10:20

Owens argues FIFA prioritized revenue over accessibility by using dynamic pricing for the first time at the U.S.-hosted World Cup.

“they could have prioritized making sure everyone had a shot. And instead they prioritized revenue”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 46:32

Owens says DoorDash's agitation index patent used factors including scrolling speed and phone battery, and was withdrawn after she discussed it in a congressional hearing.

“a couple days later, DoorDash quietly withdrew the patent”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 32:00

Owens reports her group's experiment found Instacart charged different people different prices for 75% of items at the same time.

“for 75% of the items in the cart, Instacart was charging different people different prices at the exact same time for the exact same item”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 25:23

Owens says the best outcome of the monopoly case would be splitting Live Nation and Ticketmaster into competing entities.

“I mean, this would be the best outcome, right? If Live Nation and Ticketmaster had to split back up”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 13:18

Owens says that during the 2021 inflation, companies told investors they would pass along rising costs and exploit inflation expectations to raise prices further.

“they were going to use the fact that we all expected prices to go up to pass along even more than their rising costs”

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: #693 - Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens (Nov 3, 2026) · Listen from 3:03