The Seattle City Council has passed the Fair Pricing and Transparency Act (CB 121267), making Seattle the first city in the nation to prohibit personalized pricing in grocery sales. The bill now awaits Mayor Wilson’s signature.
The legislation would ban retailers from using a consumer’s personal data to change the price they see for groceries and other essential items. According to the bill, prohibited data includes web-browsing history, real-time location information, inferences about income, family size, health conditions, and similar personal details. The measure also permits a broad range of discounting practices while requiring increased transparency around discounts and placing some limitations on consumer profiling.
“The price you see shouldn’t be different based on who you are,” said Grace Gedye, senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports, which provided technical assistance to the Mayor’s office during policy development.
The bill follows investigations by Consumer Reports into pricing practices at major retailers and delivery platforms. In May 2025, CR found that Kroger was collecting extensive data profiles on individual shoppers, including inferences about income, family size, education level, and gender. One shopper who requested their data received a 62-page profile.
In December 2025, Consumer Reports, along with Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union, published an investigation of Instacart’s pricing tactics. The investigation involved nearly 400 consumers shopping for identical baskets of goods at the same time. Researchers found that consumers were quoted different prices for the same products from the same store at the same time. Algorithmic pricing experiments could result in price differences as high as 23% for certain products and could cost families more than $1,200 a year. Following the investigation, Instacart announced it would end the program showing different shoppers different prices, though it said it would still allow retail partners and food brands to test different promotions through the platform.
Other states have already taken action against surveillance pricing. Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey have signed bills into law banning the practice.
Consumer Reports’ investigations have also examined AI-driven pricing at Uber and Lyft, finding that both apps routinely charge different customers significantly different prices for the same rides ordered within minutes—and often seconds—of one another.
Key facts
- Seattle is the first city in the US to ban surveillance pricing in grocery sales if the mayor signs the bill
- The Fair Pricing and Transparency Act prohibits using personal data like web-browsing history, location, and income inferences to set different grocery prices
- Consumer Reports found Instacart’s algorithmic pricing could create price differences as high as 23% for the same products
- Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey have already signed state-level bans on surveillance pricing into law