Congressman launches inquiry into how food retailers use surveillance pricing

A lawmaker on the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an inquiry into whether more than two dozen food retailers are using surveillance pricing to charge certain customers more based on their personal data.

Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) on Monday sent a letter to 25 retailers asking about how they collect personal data and whether and how they use it to set prices.  

The retailers receiving the letter include Albertsons, Stop and Shop, Amazon, Whole Foods, CVS, Target, Walgreens, Walmart and Wegmans.

“Consumers deserve to know if businesses are using their personal information to manipulate the prices they pay or experiment with algorithms to set the prices they see,” the letter said. 

“More and more companies appear to be relying on technological advances to maximize profit at the expense of consumers who are already stretched thin financially.”

In November, New York state began requiring companies to disclose if they are using AI to set prices based on personal data.

Pallone’s letter notes that after the law took effect, Target began posting a pop-up saying that a given price was “set by an algorithm using your personal data.”

The letter noted that many Americans are unaware that their data is being used to set variable prices, a trend that is particularly pervasive for online shoppers.

Pallone asked each of the 25 companies to report back on all of the customer data “elements” they use to set prices and how the data is used to inform pricing. The companies also must explain whether they use AI or machine learning algorithms to determine pricing, whether they obtain data from third parties as they determine what to charge and if they allow customers to opt-out from having their data used to set prices.

In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report that said businesses charge customers more for products “based on insights gleaned from their consumer data and behaviors — including geolocation, demographics, shopping habits or even how an individual moves their mouse on a webpage.”

That report drew from responses six major companies sent to the FTC in response to an inquiry about surveillance pricing tools. The firms targeted by the FTC all sell products that industry can use to change pricing in real time with the help of an algorithm tailored to account for individual traits determined by personal data.