Opinion: Why New York must ban surveillance pricing

For too long, consumers have been kept in the dark about how online prices are set.

Behind the screen, corporations quietly collect vast amounts of your personal data, from your ZIP code to the type of phone you use, and use that information to customize individual prices for the same product or service using emerging technologies and algorithms. This is not simply about supply and demand and what the market is willing to bear, which is ideally how fair markets should work. Surveillance pricing, also known as algorithmic pricing, is much more disturbing because it captures your financial breaking point while optimizing profits for corporations.

From airline and concert tickets to groceries, New Yorkers participating in nearly every part of the economy have likely been victims of this deceptive practice at one time or another.

Surveillance pricing turns online shopping into a hidden auction. Algorithms analyze where you live, how you shop, the device you use, your browsing history and more, and quietly determine how much you are willing to pay. You never see the other bids, and you never know when the price has been adjusted just for you. I have experienced this firsthand. Like most parents, my partner and I buy a whole lot of diapers. They’re an essential no family with babies can easily opt out of. While shopping online for them, I noticed prices changing depending on when and how I accessed the site, as well as different prices for me and for my partner. When basic necessities – from diapers and medicine to food and water – fluctuate based on your data rather than their actual cost, something is deeply wrong in our economy.

And it’s costing us more than just a few dollars and cents.

A recent study by Consumer Reports and The Groundwork Collaborative found that Instacart’s AI-enabled pricing schemes are inflating grocery bills by as much as 23%. In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission released a report detailing how companies use personal data, such as location and browser history, to set individualized prices. Over the past decade, companies like Staples and The Princeton Review were found to vary prices by ZIP code, with patterns suggesting racial and ethnic discrimination.

Prices are becoming more and more disconnected from reality, fairness and transparency. Corporations are deploying new technologies to squeeze as much profit out of us as possible, all while New Yorkers are already stretched to their maximum.

Consumer prices are increasing faster than inflation in New York and across the country, particularly for essentials like groceries, housing, medical care and utilities. Federal cuts to food assistance, healthcare, education and more have inflicted economic pain on millions.

Enough is enough.

This is a crisis not just of affordability, but also of fairness.  

During state budget negotiations last year, I was proud to lead the charge in the Assembly to ensure my bill on algorithmic pricing disclosure was passed into law, mandating that corporations disclose when they use personal data to set individualized prices. This was a landmark law, the first of its kind in the nation to finally put corporations on watch for their exploitative pricing practices.

But knowledge of surveillance pricing is not enough. Fair markets depend on both clarity and trust.

I have heard from constituents and advocates alike who have said that transparency alone, while helpful, is not enough to stop this financial and predatory harm. That is why I have introduced the One Fair Price Act to put an end to surveillance pricing once and for all in New York State.

New Yorkers deserve one fair price, not an individual price determined by an algorithm.

My proposed legislation establishes a simple, commonsense principle: the same product or service should have the same price for everyone. The One Fair Price Act would prohibit companies from using personal data to set individualized prices and ensure consumers are no longer punished for who they are, where they live, the device they use or how they navigate the internet. It does not ban sales or discounts.

Just last month, I was proud to co-host a roundtable discussion with the chairs of the Assembly Committees for Consumer Protection and Science and Technology, alongside advocates, experts and business leaders for a frank discussion on this deceptive practice. There is a growing consensus that the state Legislature must act to stop surveillance pricing.

New York has a long history of leading the nation on consumer protections, from financial safeguards to data privacy. With the One Fair Price Act, we will once again set the standard and make clear that predatory pricing practices have no place in our digital economy.

It’s time to finish the job. And once again, New York will lead.