Report from WRVO
In Brief – New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is calling for state legislation to ban the use of personal data to influence prices, as well as a measure to prohibit grocery stores and pharmacies in the state from adopting digital shelf price labels. Speaking during a tour through Upstate New York, James said companies should charge “one price for every New Yorker” rather than tailoring prices based on a person’s shopping habits, financial profile, or willingness to pay more. The “One Fair Price Package,” includes two bills. The One Fair Price Act would prohibit surveillance pricing statewide, both online and in retail stores. The Protecting Consumers and Jobs from Discriminatory Pricing Act bans surveillance pricing in grocery stores and pharmacies and prohibits those stores from using electronic shelf labels. (Requiring retail workers to change paper price tags is the “protecting jobs” aspect.) Local Assemblywoman Emerita Torres (D), a sponsor of the bills, said she has personally experienced fluctuating online diaper prices, while Congressman John Mannion (D-NY) says he backs similar federal measures and that consumers should not have to worry that companies are tracking them to alter prices.
Context – Lawmakers in dozens of states are proposing legislation to curb a wide range of business pricing practices variously called “surveillance”, “algorithmic” and “dynamic” pricing that use data to help set prices, often claiming that AI will raise consumer prices. One of the big dividing lines is between bills to prohibit all variable pricing, including online, versus restrictions on pricing in stores. Variable pricing has been a reality online for decades. Sometimes lower, sometimes higher. Shockingly, people only object to higher price offers. Regulating price flexibility online would be unprecedented and disruptive for many businesses. On the other hand, in-store shopper surveillance, data aggregation and individualized prices is AI science fiction, not actual AI uses in actual retail stores. Walmart, which plans to install Digital Shelf Labels in all locations this year, says they improve efficiency and said prices will remain “the same for all customers in any given store.”