WASHINGTON – A growing number of states are restricting surveillance pricing, the use of personal data and algorithms to offer different prices to shoppers based on what a company believes each person is willing to pay.
Maryland, Connecticut and New Jersey enacted laws in 2026 addressing the practice, though their rules differ in scope, enforcement and exemptions. New York also approved a strong state measure, while lawmakers in several other states have considered bills focused on groceries, essential goods or broader consumer transactions.
New Jersey’s Fair Price Protection Act prohibits food retailers and grocery-delivery platforms from using information such as online activity, location, purchase history, biometrics, genetic information or protected-class data to raise the price of the same essential food item for different consumers. The law preserves ordinary loyalty programs and discounts and places a one-year moratorium on new electronic shelf-label installations while the state studies the technology.
Surveillance pricing is different from traditional dynamic pricing. A store may change a price for everyone because of supply, demand, inventory or time of day. Under personalized surveillance pricing, the price can change because an algorithm has analyzed a particular customer’s behavior, characteristics or inferred urgency.
Electronic shelf labels do not automatically mean a retailer is using surveillance pricing. Stores say the labels reduce labor, make price changes more accurate and allow quicker markdowns of food nearing its sell-by date. Critics worry that fast digital changes, combined with customer profiles and facial or device identification, could make individualized in-store pricing easier to deploy.
The Federal Trade Commission has also proposed treating undisclosed personalized pricing as a deceptive practice. The agency’s earlier market study found that intermediaries can use location, browsing history, shopping behavior and even the time a customer leaves an item in an online cart to help retailers tailor offers.
Business groups have argued that some state bills are too broad and could interfere with legitimate discounts, membership programs and fraud prevention. Consumer advocates respond that shoppers should know whether a listed price is based on the product and market conditions or on a private profile built from their data.
The state laws do not create a single national standard, meaning companies may face different definitions and requirements across state lines. Enforcement can include attorney general action, consumer lawsuits and penalties under state consumer-protection laws, depending on the jurisdiction.
For shoppers, the practical protections remain uneven. Consumers can compare prices while signed in and signed out, limit app permissions, review loyalty-program privacy settings and question unexplained price differences. Those steps cannot replace regulation, but they can reveal when a supposedly common price may be personalized.
Source: TheStreet, published Aug. 19, 2026. Additional verification: New Jersey governor’s office, Stateline and Federal Trade Commission reporting.
