New York bill would require notice for personalized prices

New York shoppers could get a clearer answer to a nagging question: why does the price on a screen or shelf tag look different from one customer to the next? The Fair Cart Act takes aim at algorithmic pricing systems that can use personal data, geolocation, behavioral profiling or inferred purchasing power to shape what people pay.

The line around the cart

The bill says advances in artificial intelligence (AI), algorithmic pricing systems, electronic shelf labeling technology and digital commerce have opened the door to efficiency and savings, but also to price gaps that consumers never see coming. Its target is not ordinary price changes. It is undisclosed individualized price increases and materially different prices for substantially similar goods or services when the difference is driven by those personal signals.

That is the consumer-protection piece of the measure. Supporters frame it as a way to keep stores and websites from exploiting economic vulnerability while still letting them use modern pricing tools to manage inventory, reduce waste and compete on price.

Discounts that stay legal

The bill also draws a bright line around the pricing practices it wants to preserve. Loyalty programs, subscription savings, promotional pricing, first-time customer discounts, geographic promotions and personalized offers that lower costs would remain protected. Electronic shelf labels would also stay in play as a store operation tool, as long as they are not being used to hide discriminatory price sorting.

The point is not to end personalized pricing altogether. It is to keep the worst version of it, the kind that charges people differently without telling them why, out in the open.