The Brief
- Seattle City Council Member Alexis Mercedes Rinck proposed an ordinance to ban large grocery chains from using personal data to dynamically inflate prices based on an individual’s willingness to pay.
- Grocery retailers and delivery platforms deny using “surveillance pricing,” arguing the legislation misinterprets basic promotional tools and could eliminate popular digital coupons and loyalty discounts.
- Rinck acknowledged the difficulty of identifying specific grocers using the technology due to system opacity, but maintained the bill explicitly protects standard sales, bulk deals, and loyalty rewards.
SEATTLE – A proposal to ban what critics call “surveillance pricing” is headed for a full Seattle City Council vote on Tuesday, sparking some debate on what it is and whether any grocery stores are actually doing it.
Sponsored by Council Member Alexis Mercedes Rinck, the proposed ordinance goes after surveillance pricing, which is the alleged practice of adjusting prices on an individual’s willingness or ability to pay.
What is surveillance pricing?
What they’re saying:
“Building profiles on people from age, your income, where you live and what you search online, and then using that information to determine what is the most that person will pay,” Rinck explained.…