What is surveillance pricing?

It is charging different people different prices for the same product based on personal data, such as location, browsing history, or shopping behavior. The FTC found companies can track details as small as mouse movements and items left in online carts.

Can Seattle grocery stores still offer loyalty discounts?

Yes. Loyalty card deals, bulk-purchase discounts, coupons, and discounts for seniors and veterans remain allowed. The ban takes effect September 1, 2027, according to the Northwest Labor Press.

What surveillance pricing is, and why Seattle just banned it at grocery stores

Q: What does Seattle's surveillance pricing ban cover?

Grocery chains with at least 20 locations worldwide and delivery services like Instacart. They cannot set prices using personal details, browsing history, social media activity, or chatbot conversations, and posted prices must be the same for every shopper.

Same store, same item, different price depending on who's buying. Seattle just made that illegal for big grocers.

Seattle has become the first U.S. city to ban grocery stores from setting prices based on shoppers' personal data, a practice known as surveillance pricing. The City Council passed the ordinance 7-2 on September 22, with Councilmembers Kettle and Rivera voting no, and Mayor Katie Wilson was set to sign it on October 5.

What surveillance pricing is

Surveillance pricing means charging different people different prices for the same product based on what a company knows about them. The Federal Trade Commission described it in a January 2025 study as using details "like a person's precise location or browser history" to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods.

The FTC found that companies can track behavior as small as mouse movements on a webpage or the products a shopper leaves in an online cart. The six intermediary firms it examined, including Mastercard, Accenture, and McKinsey, worked with at least 250 clients, which ranged "from grocery stores to apparel retailers."

What Seattle's law does

The ordinance covers grocery chains with at least 20 locations worldwide, KOMO News reported, along with grocery delivery services like Instacart. Those businesses can't set prices using personal details, browsing history, social media activity, or chatbot conversations, and posted prices have to be the same for every shopper.

Ordinary discounts survive. Loyalty card deals, bulk-purchase discounts, coupons, and discounts for seniors and veterans are all still allowed, according to the Northwest Labor Press, which reported that the ban takes effect September 1, 2027.

"Everyone deserves transparent pricing and equal treatment, not hidden systems that charge some shoppers more than others," Wilson said, according to FOX 13 Seattle.

Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck called it "an important step we can take to prevent AI-assisted price gouging." The grocery workers union UFCW Local 3000 and MLK Labor, King County's central labor council, pushed for the law. The union said workers "won't have to spend time trying to explain secret algorithmic decisions to customers" who are frustrated at paying different prices for the same items.

The pushback

Grocers opposed it. "The only people that lose if we get this wrong, are consumers," said Amanda Dalton, president and chief executive of the Northwest Grocery Retail Association. A Safeway spokesperson said, "We strongly disagree with the Seattle City Council's decision to pass this legislation," KOMO reported. Retailers have also warned that shoppers could lose discounts.

Supporters frame it as a simple fairness rule. "The price you see shouldn't be different based on who you are," said Grace Gedye of Consumer Reports.