H.R. 10905: No Personal Data in Grocery Pricing Act

This bill would ban certain grocery pricing practices at large retail food stores and their online platforms. In general, stores with at least 15,000 square feet of retail sales floor space would be prohibited from:

• Charging different prices to different shoppers based on their personal data.
• Using facial recognition or other biometric data to set, change, or offer a price.
• Using dynamic pricing, meaning raising prices based on when a shopper is expected to be in the store or based on characteristics such as age, race, income, occupation, or similar factors.

The bill defines personal data broadly to include information linked to a consumer, household, or device, such as purchase history, location, biometric data, and inferences drawn from that information.

The bill would still allow some common pricing practices, as long as they do not use facial recognition or other biometric data and do not charge more than the usual price. These allowed practices include:

• Coupons.
• Loyalty or membership discounts that a consumer voluntarily joins.
• Discounts for certain groups, if eligibility rules are publicly disclosed, such as seniors, people with disabilities, military veterans, students, educators, employees of the store, or participants in nutrition assistance programs.
• Markdowns for items that are perishable, damaged, near expiration, seasonal, or discontinued, if the markdown is available to all customers.
• Different prices based only on disclosed delivery, pickup, or other service fees requested by the customer, if the fee is the same for all customers under the same service conditions.
• Refunds, credits, or discounts used to resolve complaints, billing errors, or service problems.
• Different prices between stores, or between online orders fulfilled from different stores, as long as each store uses the same price for all customers and the difference is not based on personal data.

The bill also says stores may not try to get around these rules through indirect methods, including fees, discounts, promotions, price corrections, changes to items, or routing online orders in a way designed to evade the ban.

Enforcement would be handled by the Federal Trade Commission, and violations would be treated as unfair or deceptive practices under the FTC Act. The FTC could issue regulations to clarify the rules, identify evasion tactics, and add other permitted practices if they do not rely on biometric data and do not charge a consumer more than the generally available price based on personal data.

State attorneys general could also sue on behalf of residents to stop violations, seek compliance, and obtain damages or other relief. The bill would not override stronger state consumer protections unless they directly conflict with it.

The rules would take effect one year after enactment.

Relevant Companies

• None found