Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed the Fair Price Protection Act into law Thursday, making New Jersey the third state this year to outlaw surveillance pricing at grocery and retail checkouts. The statute bars businesses from using a shopper’s online activity, location or purchase history to charge different people different prices for the identical product.
The bill cleared the state Senate 22-14 on June 30 and the Assembly 51-20-1, with sponsors Sens. Joe Cryan and Joe Lagana calling algorithmic pricing “a modern form of consumer fraud.” Attorney General Jennifer Davenport now owns enforcement. Grocers also face a one-year freeze on installing new electronic shelf labels while the New Jersey Innovation Authority studies whether the digital tags enable real-time price discrimination; existing labels can stay.
New Jersey isn’t first here, and that’s the point. Maryland and Connecticut banned surveillance pricing earlier this year, New York’s bill is waiting on the governor’s desk, and more than 50 similar bills are pending across 26 states. Retailers who built loyalty apps and dynamic-discount engines now have to navigate a growing patchwork of state rules instead.
Carve-outs matter as much as the ban. Loyalty programs, senior and veteran discounts and coupon apps all survive, so the law targets price-setting by inferred willingness to pay, not personalization itself. The New Jersey Assembly GOP has already warned the statute could still chill those promotions.
The shelf-label moratorium runs through next July, when the Innovation Authority’s findings decide whether the freeze lifts or turns permanent.
— James Okafor