Just one week after the New York state Democratic Senate majority advanced multiple pieces of legislation aimed at saving New Yorkers money, there’s a push in the Assembly to pass a proposal that would protect consumers against discriminatory pricing.
“We have a strong possibility,” said Democratic Assemblymember Michaelle Solages. “We have the support of the attorney general. We have many people in the Assembly and Senate who want to see this get done. So we are working very hard to move the bill.”
Solages is sponsoring the Protecting Consumers and Jobs from Discriminatory Pricing Act in the Assembly. She hopes it will make it to the governor’s desk during the last two weeks of the current legislative session.
“It’s a bill about consumer protections,” said Solages. “We are increasingly seeing on a federal level consumer protections being eroded. We want to make sure on a state level, we’re regulating surveillance pricing because we see that these companies are using it.”
The proposed legislation bans electronic shelf labels and prohibits grocery stores and pharmacies from using surveillance pricing, which is the use of a customer’s personal information to set prices.
The measure sponsored by Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris passed the chamber last week and was delivered to the lower house.
“This is something that is squeezing people at a time when they’re struggling to pay their bills and get their family’s budget in order,” said Gianaris.
“These proposals are about saving New Yorkers money and stopping large corporations from using deceptive practices to drive up costs,” said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Other proposals passed by the Senate majority to address affordability include measures to monitor the pricing practices of grocery suppliers and retailers, prohibiting online retailers from basing prices on your device or geolocation, and mobile apps that offer subscription services being required to provide users with an option to cancel the subscriptions directly in the app.
These measures come on the heels of a law passed last year that requires companies to disclose when they’re using surveillance pricing.