{"id":816709,"date":"2026-07-21T16:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816709\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:40:12","slug":"rip-off-mayor-chow-wants-to-ban-surveillance-pricing-at-toronto-grocery-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/816709\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Rip off&#8217;: Mayor Chow wants to ban &#8216;surveillance pricing&#8217; at Toronto grocery stores"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is looking to ban \u201csurveillance pricing\u201d at grocery stores across the city in an effort to curb what she describes as \u201cunfair price gouging\u201d that uses customer\u2019s personal data to charge more for groceries.<\/p>\n<p>Chow along with Coun. Alejandra Bravo plan to introduce a motion to ban the practice at an Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTorontonians are struggling with rising costs and making difficult choices at the grocery store,\u201d Chow said in a press release. \u201cThe last thing we need is big retailers using your personal information to charge you more for groceries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the level of government closest to people\u2019s day-to-day lives, we need to help reduce people\u2019s costs,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019re doing that already by freezing TTC fares and our school food program. But we need to go further and protect people from this emerging grocery rip off, before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The initiative follows provinces like Manitoba, which introduced legislation in March to ban what it described as \u201cpredatory pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig corporations shouldn\u2019t be allowed to use your internet search history and other data to raise the price of essentials,\u201d Coun. Bravo said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at using every tool we have to make the economy more\u00a0fair for working Torontonians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Chow looks for solutions at the municipal level, Ontario Premier Doug <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2026\/04\/16\/doug-ford-nixes-idea-of-grocery-surveillance-pricing-ban-in-ontario\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ford has previously nixed the idea<\/a> of a ban on surveillance pricing.<\/p>\n<p>At a press conference in April, Ford said that a ban would run contrary to a free market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no better way of letting people get lower costs on no matter if it\u2019s cars or homes or groceries, than competition,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is what we believe in. That\u2019s a capitalist society, a market. The other one is socialism. Socialism does not work. You go around and dictating and overseeing every single price, no. If there\u2019s collusion on pricing, I\u2019ll go after them and tear them to shreds, but nothing beats a free market,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Executive Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the matter.<\/p>\n<p>With files from The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2ef60c60adaeb8c94b90414ce1e0641e7e8a44f99700e32c4aae3d64e22dbc5a-edited-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" ratio=\"16x9\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tToronto Mayor Olivia Chow speaks during a panel at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Ottawa on Friday, May 30, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld  <\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Toronto as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=toronto.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"198\" height=\"63\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is looking to ban \u201csurveillance pricing\u201d at grocery stores across the city in an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-816709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}