- From October 1, 2026, retail sellers and delivery services in Connecticut may not engage in surveillance pricing. [1]
- Anyone there who prices with personal data, other than to discount, must say the price was increased that way. [1]
- Posted uniform discounts, broad group discounts, and opt-in loyalty programs are exempt if the terms are public. [1]
- New York has required an on-page disclosure since November 10, 2025, at up to $1,000 per violation. [2][3]
- New Jersey’s grocery ban adds a private right of action, and Maryland’s food-retail ban starts the same day as Connecticut’s. [4][5][6]
- The EU has required disclosure of personalized prices since May 28, 2022. [7]
- The FTC found intermediaries using precise location, browsing, and mouse movements to set prices. [8]
For most of retail history the price on the shelf was the price for everyone standing in front of it. Online, that stopped being true quietly. A price or a promotion can now be computed per visitor, from where they are, what they browsed, what they left in the cart, and what a model guesses they will tolerate. The FTC’s first look inside the vendors that sell this found intermediaries working with at least 250 clients, from grocery stores to apparel retailers. [8]
On October 1, 2026, the first broad ban on the practice for retailers takes effect in Connecticut. [1] New York has made companies label it since November 2025. [3] New Jersey passed a grocery version in July. [4] If your pricing or promotion engine touches shopper data, the question is no longer whether this is coming. It is whether you can show, for any price, which inputs produced it.
What Connecticut actually bans
The law is Public Act 26-64, and the section that matters is short. It defines surveillance pricing as setting a customized price for a consumer good or service that is specific to a consumer, based in whole or in part on personal data collected through any technology, from device tracking to cameras and sensors, whether the seller gathered it or bought it from a third party. [1] Then it says that no retail seller or third-party delivery service doing business in the state shall engage in it. [1]
A second obligation reaches further than retail. Anyone doing business in Connecticut who uses a “price setting device,” meaning any automated process that uses a consumer’s personal data to set a price, for any reason other than setting a discount, and who promotes that price online, must show a disclosure that is readily visible to the average consumer. [1]
Print the statute’s words, not a summary’s.
Connecticut, when a price setting device raised the price: “THIS PRICE WAS INCREASED BY A PRICE SETTING DEVICE USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA,” or a substantially similar disclosure. [1]
New York, for any personalized algorithmic price: “THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA,” clear and conspicuous, with the price. [2]
Several summaries in circulation quote Connecticut’s notice without the words “by a price setting device.” The enacted text includes them. [1] If you are going to print it on a product page, print the one in the statute.
Enforcement belongs to the attorney general alone, as an unfair or deceptive trade practice, and the section says in terms that it creates no private right of action. [1] Insurers and banks regulated under their own regimes are carved out. [1]
The discounts that survive
The ban is not a ban on paying less. The statute lists what does not count as surveillance pricing, and the list reads like the promotions calendar of most retailers. [1]
- Different prices driven by justifiable differences in cost, such as delivery distance or delivery time, or by justifiable temporal differences such as supply and demand.
- A discount on a service to retain an existing customer.
- A discount on publicly disclosed uniform terms that any consumer can meet, including signing up for a mailing list or registering for promotional emails.
- A discount for everyone in a broadly defined group, such as veterans, seniors, students, teachers, or residents of an area.
- A discount through a loyalty, membership, or rewards program that consumers must affirmatively join.
The last three come with a condition that is easy to miss: the seller must post the discounted price and its uniform terms prominently on its website, in plain language, and offer it to everyone who meets them. [1] That is where the paperwork lives. A welcome discount posted for anyone who subscribes is a uniform term. The same discount shown to one returning visitor, and not the next, because of what a model inferred about them, is the thing the law describes.
The map, as of today
Connecticut is the broadest law for retailers, not the only one.
| Jurisdiction | What it does | Who it covers | In force | Enforced by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | Bans surveillance pricing, and requires a notice when a price setting device raises prices [1] | Retail sellers and third-party delivery services for the ban, anyone pricing online for the notice [1] | October 1, 2026 [1] | Attorney general only [1] |
| New York | Requires a disclosure next to personalized algorithmic prices [2] | Any entity showing such a price to a New York consumer [2] | November 10, 2025 [3] | Attorney general, up to $1,000 per violation [2] |
| New Jersey | Bans using personal data to set individual grocery prices, pauses new electronic shelf labels for a year [4] | Retailers selling groceries and other necessities [4] | August 1, 2027, per Skadden [5] | State, and consumers directly, per Skadden [5] |
| Maryland | Bans using personal data to set higher food prices, per Skadden [6] | Food retailers with at least 15,000 square feet and third-party delivery services, per Skadden [6] | October 1, 2026, per Skadden [6] | Attorney general, up to $10,000 per violation, per Skadden [6] |
| European Union | Requires telling consumers a price was personalized by automated decision-making [7] | Traders selling to EU consumers [7] | May 28, 2022 [7] | National authorities |
Two notes on that table. The New Jersey and Maryland rows lean on a law firm’s reading because neither legislature’s website answered when this piece was checked. New Jersey’s governor confirms the ban, the loyalty carve-out, and the shelf-label pause directly. [4] And the EU row is weaker than it looks in one direction and stronger in another. It bans nothing, but it has applied across the single market for four years, and it expressly does not reach dynamic or real-time pricing that responds to market demand without personalization. [7]
Triage your pricing stack
The practical question for an e-commerce team is not which state you are in. It is which of your prices are specific to a person and why. Run each pricing and promotion system through four questions, in order.
Does any input describe this shopper?
Location, browsing, purchase history, device, a segment a vendor sold you. If the only inputs are cost, stock, time, and demand, you are in the dynamic pricing exceptions in Connecticut and outside the EU rule. [1][7]
Is the output specific to that shopper?
A price every visitor would see under the same public terms is a uniform term. A price computed for one profile is not.
Is it a discount that fits an exception, with the terms posted?
Mailing list, broad group, opt-in loyalty, retention of a service customer. Post the terms and offer them to everyone who qualifies, or the exception does not hold. [1]
Most teams will find the risk is not in the pricing engine they built. It is in the vendor tools layered on top: the personalization platform that picks which offer to show, the AI personalization test that varies the discount by predicted intent, the recommendation widget that sorts higher-priced items first for a profile. The FTC’s example is a shopper profiled as a new parent being shown higher-priced baby thermometers on the first page of results. [8] Nothing there changes the list price, and all of it is priced by personal data.
What to change this quarter
Inventory every system that sets, discounts, or reorders prices, including the ones marketing owns. Write down its inputs. Separate the ones that describe the market from the ones that describe the person. For every discount that uses personal data to decide who sees it, either make the terms public and uniform or turn it off for Connecticut shoppers. Where a price is set by an algorithm from personal data and shown to New York shoppers, add the statutory sentence next to it, in the statute’s words.
Then keep the record. The FTC’s own study was released over the dissent of two commissioners, one of whom, Andrew Ferguson, now chairs the agency. [8][9] The pressure you can plan against today comes from the states. New York’s attorney general is asking consumers to report undisclosed algorithmic pricing directly, and says the law is clear: if businesses use algorithmic pricing, they must notify consumers. [3] The retailer that can print, for any price, the list of inputs that produced it will have an easy conversation with that office. Everyone else will be reconstructing it from logs.
Sources
- Connecticut General Assembly · Substitute Senate Bill No. 4, Public Act No. 26-64Section 11, effective October 1, 2026: the definitions, the disclosure, the ban on retail sellers and delivery services, the exceptions, and enforcement by the attorney general.
- New York State Senate · General Business Law § 349-A, Algorithmic pricing disclosureThe definition of personalized algorithmic pricing, the required disclosure, and the civil penalty.
- New York State Attorney General · Attorney General James Warns New Yorkers About Algorithmic Pricing as New Law Takes EffectThe November 10, 2025 effective date and the call for complaints.
- State of New Jersey, Office of the Governor · Governor Sherrill Signs the Fair Price Protection ActJuly 23, 2026. The ban, the loyalty and discount carve-out, and the one-year moratorium on new electronic shelf labels.
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom · New Jersey Enacts First-in-the-Nation Private Right of Action for Surveillance PricingJuly 31, 2026. A law firm’s reading, used where New Jersey’s legislature site did not respond: the August 1, 2027 effective date and the private right of action.
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom · Maryland Becomes the First State to Restrict Surveillance Pricing in the Food IndustryMay 8, 2026. A law firm’s reading of the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act: scope, the October 1, 2026 effective date, and enforcement.
- EUR-Lex · Directive (EU) 2019/2161Recital 45 and the new point (ea) of Article 6(1) of Directive 2011/83/EU, applicable from May 28, 2022.
- Federal Trade Commission · FTC Surveillance Pricing Study Indicates Wide Range of Personal Data Used to Set Individualized Consumer PricesJanuary 17, 2025. The data signals, the 250 clients, the baby thermometer example, and the 3-2 vote.
- Federal Trade Commission · Commissioners and StaffAndrew N. Ferguson as Chairman.
Frequently asked questions
What is surveillance pricing?
Connecticut’s new law defines it as setting a customized price for a consumer good or service that is specific to a consumer, based in whole or in part on personal data collected through technology such as device tracking, cameras, or sensors, whether gathered directly or bought from a third party.
What does Connecticut ban, and from when?
From October 1, 2026, no retail seller or third-party delivery service doing business in Connecticut may engage in surveillance pricing. Separately, anyone using an automated process that sets prices from personal data, for any reason other than a discount, must show a notice that the price was increased by a price setting device using the shopper’s personal data.
Are loyalty programs and discounts still allowed in Connecticut?
Yes, within limits the law spells out. A discount based on publicly disclosed uniform terms anyone can meet, a discount for a broadly defined group such as students or seniors, or a discount through a loyalty program people must affirmatively join is not surveillance pricing. The seller must post the price and terms prominently on its website and offer them to everyone who qualifies.
Is ordinary dynamic pricing now illegal?
No. Connecticut exempts different prices driven by justifiable differences in cost, such as delivery distance or time, and by justifiable temporal differences such as supply and demand. The EU rule that personalized prices must be disclosed likewise does not apply to dynamic pricing that responds to market demand without personalization.
What does New York require?
Since November 10, 2025, any entity that sets a price using personalized algorithmic pricing and shows that price to a New York consumer must include a clear and conspicuous disclosure reading “THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA.” A court may impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation.
Who enforces these laws?
In Connecticut, only the attorney general, as an unfair or deceptive trade practice, and the law says it creates no private right of action. Maryland’s food-retail law is also enforced by the attorney general, with penalties of up to $10,000 per violation according to the law firm Skadden. New Jersey’s grocery law, by Skadden’s reading, is the first to let consumers sue, including through class actions, once it takes effect on August 1, 2027.
Does the EU have a similar rule?
The EU requires disclosure rather than a ban. Since May 28, 2022, traders must tell consumers, where applicable, that a price was personalized on the basis of automated decision-making.
What did the FTC find?
In January 2025 FTC staff reported that intermediaries it studied can use signals from precise location and browser history down to mouse movements and items left in a cart to tailor prices, and that they worked with at least 250 clients. The Commission voted 3-2 to release the findings, with the current chair, Andrew Ferguson, among the dissenters.
Mikołaj Salecki
Writes about media, tech, and AI business for people who actually run digital. Former agency lead. Skeptic of frameworks that read better than they perform.
