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SEATTLE - The Seattle City Council passed a groundbreaking ordinance Tuesday, banning grocery retailers from using customer data and AI to calculate individual pricing.
The ordinance, titled the Fair and Transparent Pricing policy, passed with a 7-2 vote, with Councilmembers Kettle and Rivera opposed.
Seattle passes AI-based grocery pricing ban
What we know:
It prohibits algorithm‑based pricing, preventing large online grocery stores from using sensitive personal data—including race, gender, location, employment status, web-browsing history, social media activity, or chatbot conversations—to drive what individual customers pay.
All grocery prices must be clearly posted and available to all shoppers equally under the policy. The policy named specific retailers suspected of participating in surveillance pricing.
FILE-A man with a bank card in his hand sits at his laptop and looks at the Black Friday deals on Amazon's online shopping site. (Photo by Mohssen Assanimoghaddam/picture alliance via Getty Images)
What they're saying:
"Food is an essential good that’s getting more expensive all the time," said Mayor Katie Wilson. "People have been clear: they don’t want their data fed into algorithms that decide how much they pay at the grocery store. Everyone deserves transparent pricing and equal treatment, not hidden systems that charge some shoppers more than others."
"Groceries are getting more expensive for everyday Seattleites, while the buying, selling, and leveraging our private information to manipulate prices is making big national grocery corporations millions in profits," Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck said. "This legislation is intended to put some guardrails on what big businesses can do with our personal information. At a time when SNAP reductions have rocked our community and people have less to spend on food, this is an important step we can take to prevent AI-assisted price gouging and ensure fair discounts for everyone."
The bill also received support from labor groups, including UFCW 3000 and MLK Labor, along with consumer advocacy organizations like Consumer Reports and TechEquity Action.
"When we work together, we can protect our neighborhood stores from predatory practices that put profits over people," said UFCW 3000 Secretary-Treasurer Sean Embly. "We hope the passage of this legislation helps us all return to the work of feeding our communities instead of feeding Wall Street’s greed."
"Nobody should pay more for basic necessities because a data broker is quietly collecting information about what they’re searching for online, what they hover over, what their income is, or where they go. The price you see shouldn’t be different based on who you are. Mayor Wilson and the city council have made Seattle a leader on protecting shoppers from unfair grocery pricing tactics with this bill. We commend this work," said Grace Gedye, senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports.
Walmart shopper (Walmart)
Seattle would be first US city to ban surveillance pricing
The backstory:
The approval would make Seattle the first city in the United States to pass a comprehensive ban on algorithmic-based grocery pricing.
The measure follows state-level legislation addressing surveillance pricing in several other states, including Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
Recent reports from consumer advocates claimed major corporate chains and delivery platforms collected multi-page demographic profiles on individual shoppers, and used the data to conduct dynamic pricing experiments.
What's next:
The bill now moves to Mayor Katie Wilson for her official signature before taking effect.
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The Source: Information in this story came from the Seattle City Council, UFCW 3000 and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.