SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers are considering whether businesses should be allowed to use a customer’s browsing behavior, location and other personal information to calculate an individualized price for goods, a practice commonly called surveillance pricing.
The issue arises when two people can be offered different prices for the same product because an algorithm predicts what each is willing to pay. Data may include search history, repeat visits to a product page, a device’s location, purchasing patterns or inferences about income and family circumstances. Dynamic pricing based on inventory or demand is not necessarily surveillance pricing unless personal information influences the offer.
Assembly Bill 2564, introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Chris Ward of San Diego, would prohibit businesses from setting a customized price for a specific consumer or group using personally identifiable information collected through electronic surveillance technology. The bill includes exceptions, including some retention offers and randomly varied online prices.
Supporters say consumers should not pay more because a company concludes they are in urgent need, less able to compare prices or likely to accept a higher charge. Consumer Reports and TechEquity are among the bill’s backers. Business groups have warned that broad restrictions could sweep in beneficial discounts or ordinary pricing tools and create compliance uncertainty.
The Federal Trade Commission asked pricing intermediaries in 2024 to explain how they use data and algorithms. California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an inquiry in January 2026, saying undisclosed personalized pricing could undermine consumer trust and may violate state law in some circumstances. His office cited tests that found different shoppers offered price variations for the same products.
AB 2564 remained pending when the Los Angeles Times published its report. Consumers shopping online can compare prices while logged out, review privacy settings and avoid assuming that a displayed price is universal, but those steps cannot reveal every data source or algorithm used by a retailer.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, California Legislative Information and the California Attorney General’s Office. Published Aug. 10, 2026.
