Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation Thursday that bars anyone from using data on a consumer’s spending habits to hike prices on their grocery items.
The bill, dubbed the Fair Price Protection Act, is intended to forbid the use of surveillance pricing, in which prices are adjusted based on someone’s past purchases, online searches, and other personal digital data. The practice results in individual shoppers paying different prices for identical products purchased at the same time from the same place.
“Surveillance pricing weaponizes your data against you,” Sherrill said before she signed the bill at a Newark grocery store. “Companies figure out where you live, where you shop, and even what you’re Googling, and they use that data to calculate specific, often higher prices for items you need without your knowledge.”…