Report from Colorado Newsline
In Brief – The Colorado House of Representatives has passed House Bill 26-1210, a measure prohibiting companies from using personalized data and algorithms to offer individualized prices and wages. Approved 39 – 24, with all support coming from Democratic members while all Republicans, and two Democrats, opposed, the bill prohibits businesses from using data including search history, financial information, online behavior, and app interactions to inform prices or wages offered to individuals. Backers claim the measure addresses public concerns about “surveillance pricing,” where companies use individualized data to tailor prices for items like groceries and plane tickets, while opponents contend the bill is overly broad and vague, warning it could unintentionally regulate routine online retail practices that often result in buyer discounts and promotions, as well as widely used human resources software used to recommend pay ranges. The bill will next be considered by the Colorado Senate.
Context – Lawmakers in dozens of states are proposing legislation to curb a wide range of “surveillance”, “algorithmic” and “dynamic” pricing practices in which retailers use data and technology in some manner to help set prices, claiming that AI will be used to widely raise prices for consumers. One of the big dividing lines is between bills to prohibit the practice in physical stores, which is a speculative AI science fiction fear about in-store surveillance rather than an actual current practice, and efforts to roll-back the practice online. Individualized pricing has been a reality online for decades. Some lower, some higher. Shockingly, people only like lower price offers. The Maryland state legislature has passed a law prohibiting personalized pricing in larger grocery stores. Walmart, which plans to install Digital Shelf Labels in all locations this year, says they improve efficiency and emphasized that prices will remain “the same for all customers in any given store.” The Colorado bill is the opposite, striking out at long-used online pricing practices, along with employment technology tools.