What Is Surveillance Pricing? NYS Attorney General Letitia James Wants To Ban It

On Monday morning, Attorney General Letitia James joined together with state lawmakers and union representatives, calling for the passage of the One Fair Price Package. It includes legislation aimed at banning surveillance pricing.

• The One Fair Price Act (S. 8623/A.9349) “will ban surveillance pricing and prohibit the use of consumers’ personal data to set individualized prices to ensure New Yorkers are charged the same price for the same product.”
• The Protecting Consumers and Jobs from Discriminatory Pricing Act (S. 8616/A. 9396) will protect consumers and workers alike by prohibiting the use of ESLs and surveillance pricing in grocery stores and pharmacies.”

Surveillance pricing is where companies use personal data to set individualized prices for consumers; these algorithms can also be designed through artificial intelligence.

“These predatory algorithms analyze where you live, your spending habits, and even whether you’re in a hurry and when you get paid,” James said. “Two neighbors can buy the same item at the same time but pay two different prices.”

She said surveillance pricing happens in grocery stores and pharmacies. It can also factor into how much you pay for concert tickets or a hotel room. On March 5, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a statement on the committee’s investigation of using artificial intelligence to set prices for consumers. The full press release can be found here.

The committee requested documents from Booking Holdings, Expedia Group Incorporated, Uber, Lyft and Instacart regarding their pricing practices.

Surveillance pricing can be difficult to detect because consumers rarely have a view into what information a company has about them, what the prices they see are based on, or what prices other customers may be seeing for the same goods or services- making it difficult for consumers to make informed purchasing decisions,” said Chairman James Comer in the statement.

The statement said individualized data can include geolocation, demographics, browsing history, purchase history, device type, battery life, etc. Legislation passed in 2025 by Governor Hochul made it so companies would have to disclose if they are using surveillance pricing. The One Fair Price Package is now in the Assembly and the Senate.

Source: WKTV