Rep. Danilo Burgos, D-Philadelphia, has introduced legislation to ban “surveillance pricing” in Pennsylvania. The proposed bill would prohibit both online and in-store retailers from charging different prices to different customers based on personal data.
Surveillance pricing is a practice in which companies use consumer information to adjust the cost of goods. Data sources can include shopping history, online activity, and even financial account details.
A January 2025 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report stated that retailers often rely on personal information such as GPS location, browsing history, and shopping cart contents to set targeted prices. Former FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said initial findings showed that prices could be tailored down to details like a person’s demographics or mouse movements.
Current FTC Commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson dissented, arguing the report was released prematurely by prior Democratic leadership and required further investigation before reaching conclusions about pricing impacts.
Major retailers including Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, and Kroger already use digital price displays capable of adjusting costs in real time. While companies have said this does not indicate a move toward “surge pricing”—raising costs during times of high demand—new technology makes such practices possible.
Critics warn that combining surveillance pricing with facial recognition and other profiling tools could result in unequal prices for identical products, raising concerns about price gouging and consumer fairness.
