Democrats are putting the squeeze on President Donald Trump’s big “affordability” push by proposing a union-backed ban on surveillance pricing in grocery stores.
Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced a bill Thursday that would forbid the controversial practice in which retailers use customers’ personal data to adjust their prices. The legislation would also restrict supermarkets from using electronic shelf labels, which allow retailers to quickly and remotely change their prices.
The Senate proposal is modeled on a House bill put forth last year by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), who reintroduced the legislation Thursday with Rep. Val Hoyle (Ore.).
Tlaib told HuffPost she’s worried about how powerful corporations could use personal data to implement individualized price hikes, especially at a time when consumers already feel pinched by inflation.
“All of the big stores are looking into using private information about what we’re scrolling, what we’re looking at, what apps do we have, how far we live, what job we have, what color skin, you know — just all these little, like, private profile data to calculate pricing,” Tlaib said.
