Assemblyman Chigozie Onyema (D-Newark) announced Tuesday that he will introduce legislation barring grocery retailers from using so-called surveillance pricing to set individualized prices for New Jersey’s customers.
Onyema, a freshman assemblyman, said his bill, the “Fair Price Protection Act,” would protect New Jerseyans from facing increased grocery costs based on personal data. Onyema pointed to an independent report by More Perfect Union, Groundwork Collaborative, and Consumer Reports that found Instacart, a grocery delivery app, gave consumers prices that varied by as much as 25%, including five different prices for the same carton of eggs.
“When you walk into a grocery store, you expect everyone to pay the same price for the same loaf of bread. Imagine discovering you were charged more because an algorithm decided you ‘needed it more’—because of your kids, your neighborhood, or your shopping habits. That’s not innovation, it’s exploitation. It’s price gouging dressed up as technology—and we’re going to end it.”
As companies further embrace technologies like artificial intelligence and personal data in day-to-day operations, lawmakers like Onyema have increasingly sought legislation to protect consumers.
Onyema’s bill says a company cannot conduct customized pricing based on data gathered from a variety of methods: “electronic surveillance technology, including sensors, cameras, device tracking, biometric monitoring, or other forms of observation or data collection capable of gathering information about a consumer’s behavior, characteristics, location, or other personal attributes.”
Some lawmakers have targeted electronic price labels at grocery stores, which some worry could be used to quickly gouge prices based on the weather, time of day, or remaining stock.
“Corporate practices like these drive up costs for New Jersey families and transfer wealth from working people to large corporations,” Onyema said. “The Fair Price Protection Act would put a stop to individualized pricing and restore fairness and transparency to the marketplace.”
