By Newswire Editorial

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a ban on surveillance pricing, a practice in which companies use customers’ personal data, including browsing history, to charge different prices for the same goods and services.

In a statement on social media platform X, Mayor Mamdani said companies have been using consumers’ personal information to determine individual prices.

“Some companies use your personal data, like browsing history, to serve different prices to different customers. It’s called surveillance pricing, and we just banned it in New York City,” he said.

The Mayor also made a lighthearted reference to private browsing, stating, “This tweet will say the same thing in incognito mode, don’t worry.”

The announcement follows the New York City Council’s approval of major legislation on Thursday (12) to prohibit surveillance pricing across the city’s five boroughs.

The legislation, sponsored by City Council Speaker Julie Menin, is considered one of the strongest surveillance pricing bans in the United States.

Under Introduction 891-A, businesses and service providers will be prohibited from using algorithms that rely wholly or partly on consumers’ personal data to offer different prices to different customers for the same goods or services.

Speaker Julie Menin said the legislation was aimed at protecting consumers from deceptive pricing practices that contribute to the city’s affordability crisis.

“When corporations use algorithms and personal data to charge different people different prices for the same products, it’s unethical and worsens our affordability crisis,” she said.

According to the City Council, surveillance pricing is often invisible to consumers, making it difficult to detect.

The Council cited investigations revealing that a major grocery delivery platform had conducted algorithmic pricing experiments resulting in individual price differences of up to 23%.

Another investigation found that the price of a television at a retailer increased from $499.99 to $599.99 when a customer entered the store’s parking lot.

The Council also referred to claims by a former behavioural economist at a major ride-sharing company that its application increased fares when a customer’s mobile phone battery was running low, potentially exploiting their urgency to secure transportation.

The New York City Council said the legislation aims to eliminate such practices and strengthen consumer protection against the misuse of personal data in pricing decisions. (Newswire)