TORONTO \u2014 As the mayor of Toronto looks to rein in surveillance pricing on groceries, experts say the municipal government may be out of its depth in attempting to end the controversial practice.<\/p>\n
Surveillance pricing, also referred to as personalized pricing, is the use of consumers\u2019 individualized data such as their gender, location, purchase history or socioeconomic status, to set prices.<\/p>\n
Mayor Olivia Chow called the practice \u201cunfair\u201d and a form of price gouging at a meeting of city council\u2019s executive committee meeting Tuesday. The committee went on to pass a motion asking the city\u2019s legal team to look at all avenues to regulate, limit or outright ban surveillance pricing in Toronto.<\/p>\n
The motion calls for a minimum of plain-language disclosure of the use of algorithmic pricing for consumers, \u201cup to the full prohibition\u201d of the practice. It will move on to debate at city council next week.<\/p>\n
Chow noted the city has increased price transparency in some businesses under the City of Toronto Act, which gives the country\u2019s largest city special powers to introduce consumer protection bylaws.<\/p>\n
Alberto Salazar, an associate professor researching consumer protection law at Carleton University, says while he believes the committee has \u201cgood intentions and fair concerns,\u201d Toronto is poorly positioned to enact a ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegulation of the market is generally considered a federal and provincial matter, not a city matter,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cThe city, legally speaking, is not in a position to regulate or to ban algorithmic pricing or surveillance pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city has a narrow set of options because of its special powers, such as exploring the mandatory disclosure of algorithmic pricing by licensed businesses, Salazar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, it\u2019s very controversial because it will really collide or conflict with federal law and provincial laws,\u201d the researcher said, adding the Ontario government could override the city\u2019s attempts to regulate the market.<\/p>\n
Dan Cohen, an associate professor studying economic and financial geography at Queen\u2019s University, said that municipalities are often \u201ccreatures of the province.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto\u2019s proposed ban is part of a larger \u201cregulatory cat-and-mouse game\u201d playing out across jurisdictions, Cohen said, adding he has seen a hodgepodge of regulation proposals across the continent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t really gotten to a point where we\u2019ve seen a kind of convergence around what works, or how this is going to be approached,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If city council adopts the motion, it will also ask the provincial government to ban surveillance pricing.<\/p>\n
Ontario Premier Doug Ford nixed the idea of a ban in April, saying that curtailing the practice would run contrary to a free market.<\/p>\n
He made the comments after Manitoba announced it would attempt to ban \u201cpredatory pricing\u201d on groceries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no better way of letting people get lower costs \u2026 no matter if it\u2019s cars or homes or groceries, than competition,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s collusion on pricing, I\u2019ll go after them and tear them to shreds, but nothing beats a free market,\u201d the premier added.<\/p>\n
NDP Leader Marit Stiles and interim Liberal Leader John Fraser have condemned the practice, calling for guardrails against what they deem predatory algorithmic pricing.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s artificial intelligence strategy released last month also said it would modernize legislation to protect Canadians\u2019 personal information from surveillance pricing.<\/p>\n
Some economists argue surveillance pricing charges consumers an appropriate individualized cost, increasing economic growth, said Cohen, the associate professor at Queen\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Toronto\u2019s interest in a ban is a step in the right direction because the algorithms setting individualized prices are largely a mystery to consumers, he said.<\/p>\n
He added regulators should be aware that surveillance pricing can crop up in unexpected ways, such as companies targeting consumers with individualized discounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s such a black box around how surveillance pricing is working \u2014 it\u2019s kind of hard to know the best way to address it,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, and we don\u2019t know the effects on different consumers \u2014 who\u2019s benefiting, who\u2019s being left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salazar, the associate professor at Carleton, said although Toronto does not appear to be in a position to enact a ban, he believes surveillance pricing should not be ignored by other levels of government.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s real, it\u2019s concerning, and it should at least be debated and hopefully revisited by Parliament,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2026.<\/p>\n
Elissa Mendes, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 As the mayor of Toronto looks to rein in surveillance pricing on groceries, experts say the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-819919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819919","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=819919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}