Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, a Democrat from New Mexico, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, introduced legislation Thursday that would ban so-called surveillance and surge pricing in grocery stores. Officially known as the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act of 2026, the Senate legislation is modeled on a 2025 bill in the House.<\/p>\n
The new bill would require stores to disclose their use of facial recognition technology and would ban electronic shelf labels (ESL) in large grocery stores. ESLs are controversial because they allow retailers to change the price of a given item remotely, opening up the possibility that they could be tied to algorithms which raise and lower prices based on conditions in the store or who\u2019s trying to buy something.<\/p>\n
Hypothetically, stores can charge different prices at different times of day or rely on different inputs, right down to personalizing the price based on an individual who was looking at a given item, spotted with facial recognition tech. The concern is that factors like race, gender, and income level could be used to determine how much people are charged. A 2025 study<\/a> found that Instacart was charging customers different prices for the same products, sometimes as much as 23% more. A few weeks after the study received negative press coverage, Instacart announced it was pulling the plug on its AI-powered pricing<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn New Mexico and across the country, Americans are struggling to put food on the table,\u201d Sen. Luj\u00e1n said in a statement posted online<\/a>. \u201cWith rising costs driven by President Trump\u2019s trade war and Republican cuts to SNAP, Congress must act to ensure that technologies are being used to improve the lives of Americans, not increase their grocery bills. Our friends, family, and neighbors should be able to shop at their local grocery store without worrying about predatory pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n At least six states have seen legislation introduced to stop surge and surveillance pricing, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which has also developed a 30-second ad<\/a> to spread the word on the threat.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear how many grocery outlets are actually utilizing in-store surveillance pricing, but part of the reason legislators feel like new laws are needed is that they want to get ahead of things before the practice becomes commonplace.<\/p>\n \u201cThis legislation is actually pretty simple: If two people are in the same store buying the same item, they should pay the same price,\u201d Washington State Representative Mary Fosse said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n \u201cLarge retailers are investing in AI, algorithms, and data systems that can change prices instantly, individually, and secretly,\u201d Fosse continued. \u201cWe need to stop the rip-off at the register before these practices become the norm. Technology should serve workers and consumers, not exploit them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Biden administration launched an investigation into surveillance pricing in 2024 with FTC chair Lina Khan initiating a study on the ways it may harm U.S. consumers. But after President Donald Trump took power in 2025, his administration killed the study.<\/p>\n