Maryland is about to become the first state to ban surveillance pricing in the grocery sector, after lawmakers passed the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act earlier in April. The measure is now headed to Gov. Wes Moore, who has said companies are using “new technologies to drive up the bill for working families.”
The law would prohibit supermarkets from using consumer surveillance data or protected class data to set prices for goods or services, and would also block some use of that data to shape special offers or advertisements. Violators would face civil fines starting at $10,000.
The bill builds on Maryland’s Online Data Privacy Act, which took effect in 2024, and arrives as regulators take a harder look at how stores price what people buy. Dynamic pricing itself can move prices up or down based on supply and demand, but surveillance pricing goes further by folding in a shopper’s location, search history, personal details and past buying habits.
That distinction has become more important as major retailers lean into digital pricing tools. Walmart said in 2024 it would install digital price displays across 2,300 stores by 2026, then expanded that plan in March to a nationwide rollout across all 4,611 U.S. locations by year’s end. Whole Foods, Kroger and Target have also been linked to the spread of electronic shelf labels or digital price displays, while the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into surveillance pricing in summer 2024.
The tension in Maryland is not whether stores can change prices — they already do that — but how much personal data they can use to decide who pays more. The state is moving first, and other legislatures will be watching whether the ban can hold as retailers keep upgrading the technology at the shelf.