New York City Council moves to protect New Yorkers from predatory pricing schemes while Governor Hochul holds up statewide protections
As corporations rapidly develop and deploy technologies designed to hike prices on consumers, New York City has just passed critical protections against predatory surveillance pricing for hardworking City families. The City’s surveillance pricing ban would fine retailers who use consumers’ data against them to set individualized prices online and in-store. A similar bill, passed by New York’s State Legislature more than five months ago, awaits Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature in Albany.
The legislation follows Groundwork’s blockbuster investigation into Instacart, which found that the grocery delivery giant was charging shoppers different prices for the same item from the same store at the exact same time.
Groundwork’s President and CEO, and author of Gouged: The End of a Fair Price—and What That Means for Your Wallet, Lindsay Owens shared her reaction:
“New Yorkers didn’t sign up to be spied on and have their own data turned against them just to pad corporations’ pockets. Today, the New York City Council has drawn a clear line in the sand that New Yorkers deserve a fair price, not one set by an algorithm designed to extract every last penny they’re willing to pay. But while the Council has moved to protect shoppers in the City, families across the Empire State, from Westchester to Buffalo to Albany, are still waiting on Governor Hochul to do the same. All New Yorkers deserve a fair price, no matter their ZIP code. Governor Hochul can’t wait another day to sign the One Fair Price Act.”
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