NEW YORK: City Council Passes Bill to Ban Surveillance Pricing
The measure would bar businesses from using shoppers' personal data to set different prices for the same goods or services. It awaits the mayor's signature and would take effect one year after becoming law.
The New York City Council passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit businesses from using personal data and algorithms to charge different customers different prices for the same goods or services.
Introduction 891-A, sponsored by Council Speaker Julie Menin, targets what the bill calls surveillance pricing. The definition covers prices set wholly or partly by an algorithm that uses a consumer's personal information to offer an individualized price.
The Council's legislation record lists the measure at the mayor's desk for signature. The ban is not yet in effect: the text provides that it would take effect one year after becoming law.
The measure would also prohibit collecting, using, selling or sharing personal data to facilitate surveillance pricing. Bona fide discounts would remain permitted when offered uniformly to customers who meet disclosed eligibility conditions, and the bill includes exceptions for certain regulated activity.
The city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would enforce the rules. Violations could carry civil penalties of up to $1,000, with each consumer or transaction counted separately.
The proposal concerns personalized prices based on consumer data. It does not prohibit every price change or require every business to keep prices fixed.