Maryland Becomes First State to Ban Grocery Surveillance Pricing

Grocery store aisle with shelves of products and price tags — Photo via Unsplash

TL;DR: Maryland's legislature passed HB 895, the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act: the first state law in the country banning surveillance pricing at grocery stores. The House passed it 100-31, the Senate 41-1. Governor Wes Moore is expected to sign it. Starting October 1, 2026, grocery stores with 15,000+ square feet can't use your personal data to set individualized prices. Prices must stay fixed for at least one business day. Violations get treated as deceptive trade practices, with fines up to $10,000 for a first offense and $25,000 after that. The Maryland Attorney General's office enforces it.

The Price Tag Knows Who You Are

Walk into a Kroger. Scan your loyalty card. Grab a gallon of milk.

Now imagine the price on that milk was set just for you, calculated from your purchase history, your browsing habits, your ZIP code, maybe even how long you lingered in the dairy aisle on your phone.

That's surveillance pricing. And Maryland just outlawed it.

On April 11, 2026, the Maryland General Assembly passed HB 895, making the state the first in the nation to explicitly ban the use of personal data to set individualized grocery prices ^[1]. The bill defines "dynamic pricing" as "offering or setting a personalized price for a good or service that is specified to a consumer based on the consumer's personal data" ^[2].

Governor Wes Moore put it simply: "Marylanders deserve to know that the price they see on the shelf is the price they will pay at the register" ^[3].

What the Law Actually Does

HB 895 targets two things: food retailers (stores with at least 15,000 square feet selling food for off-premises consumption) and third-party delivery services ^[2]. Here's what changes on October 1:

No personalized pricing. Grocery stores can't use your personal data (browsing history, purchase patterns, location, demographics) to charge you a different price than the next customer.
Prices stay fixed. Grocery prices must remain the same for at least one full business day. No more hourly price swings driven by algorithms.
No protected-class targeting. Using race, religion, gender, or disability data to deny consumers accommodations or advantages is explicitly banned.
Deceptive trade practice. Violations are treated as unfair or deceptive practices under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act.
Real penalties. First offense: up to $10,000. Subsequent offenses: up to $25,000. The Attorney General's Division of Consumer Protection enforces the law ^[3].

There's a 45-day cure period: stores get a chance to fix violations before penalties kick in. And the law includes exemptions for traditional sales, promotions, loyalty program discounts, location-based tax differences, and price corrections for errors ^[2].

Why This Matters Now

Electronic shelf labels changed the game. Where paper price tags meant changing a price was a physical task (someone had to walk the aisle with a label gun), digital tags let retailers update prices instantly, across every shelf, from a central system. Prices can change up to six times per minute ^[4].

Major chains have jumped on it. Walmart is rolling electronic shelf labels to all U.S. locations. Kroger has used them since 2018 and expanded to 500 stores. Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh are on board too ^[4].

The technology itself isn't the problem. Faster price updates for sales and inventory management is fine. The problem starts when you pair those instant price changes with customer data, much of it bought from the same data brokers that quietly sell your personal information. Suddenly that electronic tag isn't just showing a price. It's showing your price.

The FTC investigated this in 2024, sending orders to eight companies that sell surveillance pricing technology: Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, JPMorgan Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture, and McKinsey. They found at least 250 businesses using these systems across grocery, apparel, health and beauty, convenience stores, and hardware stores ^[5].

A 2025 Consumer Reports investigation found Instacart was charging some customers up to 23% more for the same groceries: same product, same store, different price based on who was ordering ^[6].

The Vote Wasn't Close

The Maryland House passed HB 895 by a vote of 96-32. The Senate passed an amended version 41-1. When the amended bill came back to the House, it cleared 100-31 ^[1].

That kind of margin is unusual for privacy legislation. Part of the reason: grocery prices hit different. Abstract data collection concerns don't always move voters. Finding out the store charged your neighbor less for the same box of cereal based on an algorithm? That gets attention.

House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk called it what it is: "predatory pricing." Delegate Kriselda Valderrama drew a line: "groceries are off-limits for these kinds of practices" ^[3].

What It Doesn't Cover

Consumer Reports flagged some gaps worth watching ^[7]. The law only covers food retailers with 15,000+ square feet. That leaves out:

Smaller grocery stores and specialty food shops
Restaurants and prepared food vendors
Non-food retailers (your online shopping is still fair game)
Gas stations, pharmacies, and convenience stores under 15,000 sq ft

Loyalty program exemptions are another potential loophole. If a store can frame personalized pricing as a "loyalty program benefit," the law's protections might not apply. Consumer Reports specifically called for tightening language around loyalty and subscription-based exemptions ^[7].

The Bigger Map

Maryland moved first. Others are drafting.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched a surveillance pricing investigation in January 2026, sending inquiry letters to retailers, grocery chains, and hotels. New York requires businesses using algorithmic pricing to display a label reading "THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA." New York AG Letitia James also called for legislation banning the practice outright in April 2026 ^[8].

Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New Jersey have surveillance pricing bills in various stages. Connecticut paired its own surveillance pricing ban with a data broker registry and deletion law. The UFCW (the union representing grocery workers) has been pushing legislation in multiple states, arguing that surveillance pricing also affects workers by tying their performance metrics to algorithmically manipulated sales targets ^[4].

At the federal level, the FTC's January 2025 surveillance pricing report laid the groundwork, documenting the scope of the practice and naming the vendors selling the technology. But no federal ban has advanced. Maryland didn't wait.

What You Can Do

Whether or not you live in Maryland:

Check prices across devices and accounts. Log out, clear cookies, try a different browser. If the price changes, that's surveillance pricing in action.
Rethink loyalty cards. The discount might cost you more than it saves. Every swipe feeds the pricing engine data about what you buy, when, and how often.
Use a VPN when shopping online. Your IP address and location are pricing inputs. Mask them.
Support legislation in your state. Check if your state has a surveillance pricing bill pending. If it does, contact your representative.
File complaints. If you're in Maryland, report violations to the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division. In California, use the AG's complaint form. In New York, use the AG's complaint form.

One State Down

250 businesses. Eight pricing technology vendors. Algorithms that calculate the maximum price you'll tolerate based on your data. And now, one state that said no.

Maryland's law is narrow: grocery stores only, large ones at that, with exemptions for loyalty programs that could swallow the rule. But it's the first state to put surveillance pricing in the crosshairs and pull the trigger. On October 1, the price on the shelf in a Maryland grocery store will be the price. Not your price. The price.

Every other state is watching what happens next.

Sources

Published: April 23, 2026