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Bronx Assembly Member Emerita Torres has helped lead the charge against surveillance pricing by sponsoring the \u201cOne Fair Price\u201d Act. Photo by Emily Swanson<\/p>\n
A companion bill, the Protecting Consumers and Jobs from Discriminatory Pricing Act<\/a>, would prohibit grocery stores and pharmacies from using electronic shelf labels.\u00a0<\/p>\n Surveillance pricing is already common in e-commerce \u2014 for instance, airlines and rideshares notoriously show different prices to different customers. But James and others said that surveillance pricing could also become more common at brick-and-mortar stores that implement electronic shelf labels, allowing them to change prices at the push of a button.\u00a0<\/p>\n Assembly Member Torres said surveillance pricing is a \u201chidden, horrible practice\u201d that amounts to \u201cprice gouging, plain and simple.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Torres said that seniors and people with disabilities who rely on online shopping may be especially susceptible to paying more, which worsens existing inequities, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Surveillance pricing and digital shelf labels are not technological innovations but a means for businesses to \u201cextract the highest possible price,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIt\u2019s not based on supply and demand, but it\u2019s based on who you are as an individual, and that\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n Gibson said passing the two bills is necessary to promote \u201cequity, fairness, transparency and consistency\u201d in the retail sector, where customers feel little power.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo shoppers should never visit the same website or store and see two different prices for the exact same item. That ain\u2019t right,\u201d she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n The group also expressed concern that electronic shelf labels and surveillance pricing would not only gouge consumers\u2019 pocketbooks but also eliminate union jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n For instance, in Walmart\u2019s recent announcement<\/a> that all U.S. stores will use electronic shelf labels by the end of the year, the company decried the hours employees currently spend \u201cwalking up and down aisles swapping out paper tags by hand.\u201d <\/p>\n But at the rally, union leaders questioned what would happen to those workers if prices could be changed electronically.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Deborah Wright of RWDSU said that any technological advancement should be met with the question, \u201cBut at what cost?\u201d and added that union workers are also consumers, hurt on both ends by corporate opportunism.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the rally, James said she expects the One Fair Price bills to pass and that research already shows strong consumer support for the ban.\n<\/p>\n Her office cited a survey finding that 66% New Yorkers support banning both surveillance pricing and electronic shelf labels, and two-thirds \u201cdo not trust companies to use these tools responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n The practice is especially egregious given the widespread affordability crisis and high rates of poverty in the Bronx, James said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n She pledged to make New York the first state to prohibit surveillance pricing and electronic shelf labels, and said if the bills pass, she would follow up on customer complaints and crack down on corporations when needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reach Emily Swanson at\u00a0eswanson@schnepsmedia.com<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0(646) 717-0015<\/a>. For more coverage, subscribe to our\u00a0newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>!<\/p>\n