NEW YORK STATE (WRGB) — State lawmakers want to ban surveillance pricing.
This is when consumers’ personal data and algorithms are used to assign different prices to different people.
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Attorney General Letitia James and other lawmakers are pushing two bills — the One Fair Price Act, and the Protecting Consumers and Jobs from Discriminatory Pricing Act.
The One Fair Price Act would ban surveillance pricing. It would also ban using personal data to set prices.
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The Protecting Consumers and Jobs from Discriminatory Pricing Act would ban electronic shelf labels and surveillance pricing in grocery stores and pharmacies.
“When New Yorkers place an order online or go to the grocery store, they should be able to trust that they are seeing the same prices as everyone else, not an individualized price set by an algorithm,” said James.
Advocates say surveillance pricing also creates opportunities for discrimination and threatens grocery worker jobs.