Pittsburgh, Pa. − December 15, 2025 − Senator Lindsey M. Williams (D-Allegheny) announced today that she plans to introduce legislation that will outlaw surveillance pricing in Pennsylvania.
“Families are already facing higher than ever prices at the grocery store, and now greedy corporations are using AI and personal information to manipulate them into paying more than their neighbor,” said Senator Williams. “A billionaire owned corporation deciding that you can pay more for basic necessities based on your harvested personal data is not how we do business in Pennsylvania.”
A recent investigative report found that Instacart is conducting artificial intelligence-enabled price experiments on its customers. These “algorithmic pricing” experiments involve giving different prices to different customers for the same goods at the same store at the same time. The report showed prices differed by as much as 23% per item.
There have been reported instances of these methods also being used by Target, Delta, and online travel booking companies.
This legislation will ban the use of personal data to charge different consumers different prices for the same product at the same time. It will also regulate the use of consumer data in pricing strategies.
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