Seattle City Votes Today on Algorithmic Price Discrimination Ban

Opponents have warned that the ban could backfire and drive prices up if everyday retailers eliminate discounts like loyalty programs or special pricing for students and older adults.

While several states have attempted to tackle the issue and federal regulators have opened investigations, the Seattle ordinance makes it a pioneer among municipalities.

Alexis Mercedes Rinck, the councilmember who co-authored the bill with Mayor Katie Wilson, stated she introduced the measure because “data brokers” should not dictate the cost of basic household goods.

According to Rinck, the purpose of the Fair Pricing and Transparency ordinance is to stop or prevent established grocery chains and delivery services from manipulating prices based on the behavior of their shoppers, their location, biometric data, and other forms of personal information.

The city council carved out some exceptions to these rules, as they excluded business chains with less than twenty locations, farmers’ markets, and convenience stores from these rules.

However, city staff still warned the council members that the city’s attorney’s office can be bombarded with a significant amount of workload.

According to Sara Osborne, the spokesperson for 17 Seattle-area Safeway stores, “If the bill passes, we will not be able to offer these additional savings and customers will have to pay full retail price,” she said. “Safeway does not use customers’ personal information to charge them a higher price. We do use customer information responsibly to offer voluntary savings.”

The rationale for this proposed bill is that consumers are carrying the burden of the rapid increase in food prices.

According to Rinck, while dynamic pricing and surge pricing are common and legal in industries like airlines, hotels, and ride-hailing services, Rinck noted that applying variable pricing to basic food items sits poorly with the public.

Wilson and Rinck began holding weekly meetings on the surveillance pricing rules in late may, eventually bringing Councilmember Dionne Foster and Rob Saka into the effort.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also examined the practice. After ordering delivery platforms like Instacart to submit detailed reports in 2024, the FTC published findings on the “shadowy market,” revealing that retailers tracked digital behaviour from mouse movements on webpages to unpurchased items left in online carts to set prices.

While claiming they do not oppose banning surveillance pricing itself, industry representatives claim that the bill would destroy savings programs that save residents millions annually.

They also argued that the language could lead to the ban or restriction of in-store security cameras, creating safety risks for workers.

However, Rinck has clarified that banning security cameras was never the intention of the council, and has committed to working with Council President Joy Hollingsworth to ensure camera usage remains protected.