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Tell Congress: End AI Price-Gouging on Groceries
Your grocery bill could depend on who you are: your race, your gender, your job, and what you searched for online last night.
It's called surveillance pricing, and Seattle just banned it. This week, the city council voted 7-2 to stop big retailers from using shoppers' personal data to charge different people different prices for the same food. Now it's time for Congress to do the same.
Here's how it works: retailers feed your data into AI that guesses the most you'll pay, then charges you that amount. A 2025 investigation by Consumer Reports, Groundwork Collaborative, and More Perfect Union estimated it could cost an average Seattle family $1,200 a year at the grocery store.
Big Retail and Big Tech fought Seattle's ban hard. The council had to beat back five amendments designed to gut it. Weeks ago, industry lobbyists killed a similar bill in California. But in communities across the nation, the algorithm is still setting your price.
Advocates have already asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take action. But FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson says his agency "does not have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances." His answer is to have companies disclose it.
A warning label isn't protection. You shouldn't have to read fine print at the checkout to learn an algorithm marked you up. As a Consumer Reports analyst put it, "The price you see shouldn't be different based on who you are."
Seattle, Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey have acted. Most Americans are still exposed. Only Congress can protect every shopper.
More than three in four Americans want a ban and members of Congress have already introduced legislation to ban surveillance pricing. But so far, lawmakers haven't made it a priority. We need to put pressure on Congress to change that.
Thanks for all that you do,
Matt from the Swarm