wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 2481 > Original Bill
The legislature finds that the use of algorithms for surveillance-based price discrimination and surge pricing threatens fair market access to grocery goods. The use of automation and dynamic pricing models in retail grocery sales exacerbates inequality and undermines consumer trust. The price of retail grocery goods should be rooted in fairness, not in profiling or prediction.
The legislature further finds that comprehensive consumer protection is needed to prevent discriminatory and opaque pricing practices in retail grocery sales as businesses increasingly adopt data-driven technologies to set prices. Innovation should not come at the expense of transparency, fairness, or access to grocery goods.
The legislature further finds that the prohibition of surveillance-based price discrimination and surge pricing will protect consumers from profiling and ensure equitable and fair pricing of grocery goods.
The legislature further finds that a moratorium on the use of electronic shelf label systems by grocery businesses will protect consumers from data collection without their knowledge from their electronic devices, such as smartphones, to modify the price of grocery goods for individual shoppers. Pricing should remain consistent and be clearly posted.
Therefore, the legislature intends to ban surveillance-based price discrimination and surge pricing and establish a four-year moratorium on the use of electronic shelf label systems in retail grocery locations to allow further study of the impact on pricing transparency and employee job security.
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
"Algorithm" means a computational process that uses a set of rules to define a sequence of operation including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence systems and facial recognition software.
"Behaviors" means a consumer's observable, measurable, or inferred actions, habits, preferences, interests, or vulnerabilities, including the consumer's political, personal, or professional affiliations, web browsing history, internet protocol addresses used, locations frequented, purchase history, financial circumstances, consumer behaviors, or inferences associated with a group, band, class, or tier of consumers in which the consumer belongs.
"Consumer" means a natural person who is a Washington resident and who acts only in an individual or household context, however identified, including by any unique identifier. The location of a person in Washington state creates the presumption that the person is a Washington resident.
"Electronic shelf label system" means any hardware, software, or connected technology used to display or update prices electronically, including electronic shelf labels, pricing servers, wireless beacons, and consumer-facing applications, that have the capacity, directly or indirectly, to collect, receive, infer, analyze, or use consumer data for the purpose of modifying, personalizing, or varying the price of goods. Any electronic shelf label system, regardless of whether it is enabled, disabled, or actively utilized, is an electronic shelf label system for the purposes of this act.
"Goods" means retail products for sale in a grocery establishment as defined in RCW 49.85.015.
"Inferred data" means data, assumptions, predictions, or classifications about a consumer that are derived, in whole or in part, from personally identifiable information, device identifiers, online activity, loyalty program participation, or other behavioral information, including, but not limited to, inferences about income, education level, household composition, likelihood to purchase certain products, race, ethnicity, age, disability status, or any other protected characteristic.
"Person" means any business engaged in the retail sale of goods to consumers. For the purposes of this act, "person" does not include a "small business," as defined in RCW 19.85.020.
"Personalized pricing" or "algorithmic pricing" means pricing that is determined or modified in whole or in part through the use of an automated system, artificial intelligence, machine learning model, or algorithm that relies on consumer data or inferred data to determine the price a consumer or group of consumers will be charged.
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"Personally identifiable information" means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. Personally identifiable information includes, but is not limited to, the following if it identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household:
Identifiers such as a real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, internet protocol address, email address, account name, social security number, driver's license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers;
Any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is capable of being associated with, a particular consumer, including, but not limited to, his or her name, signature, social security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver's license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information;
Characteristics of protected classifications under Washington or federal law;
Commercial information, including records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies;
Biometric information;
Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and information regarding a consumer's interaction with an internet website application, or advertisement;
Geolocation data;
Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information;
ix. Professional or employment-related information;
Inferences drawn from any of the information identified in this section to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer's preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes; or
Sensitive personal information.
"Personally identifiable information" does not include publicly available information or lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern.
"Personally identifiable information" can exist in various formats, including, but not limited to, all of the following: (i) Physical formats, including paper documents, printed images, vinyl records, or video tapes; (ii) digital formats, including text, image, audio, or video files; and (iii) abstract digital formats, including compressed or encrypted files, metadata, or artificial intelligence systems that are capable of outputting personally identifiable information.
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"Publicly available" means any of the following:
Public records;
Information that a person has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public by the consumer or from widely distributed media; or
Information made available by a person to whom the consumer has disclosed the information if the consumer has not restricted the information to a specific audience.
"Publicly available" does not mean biometric information collected by a person about a consumer without the consumer's knowledge.
"Surge pricing" means increasing the price of a good or service based on real-time or predicted demand, consumer behavior, consumer characteristics, or algorithmic determination of willingness to pay, rather than changes in the person's actual costs of providing the good or service.
"Surveillance pricing" means the practice of using personally identifiable information, personal data, inferred data, device information, browsing history, geolocation, purchasing behavior, demographic characteristics, or any other consumer-specific information to set, vary, modify, or optimize the price of a good or service for a consumer or a group of consumers. Surveillance pricing does not mean offering the same price for a good or service to all consumers.
"Surveillance-based price discrimination" means the practice of setting, altering, or manipulating the price of goods or services offered to a consumer based in whole or in part on monitoring, tracking, or automated analysis of the consumer's behavior, location, demographic characteristics, biometric data, or other personally identifiable information, rather than on the actual cost of providing the good or service.
A person must clearly post the price of goods in a retail location.
A person may not use surveillance-based price discrimination to modify the price of goods for a consumer.
A person is prohibited from using surge pricing to modify the price of goods regardless of the frequency or duration of the price change, including price changes that occur within minutes, hours, days, or across separate transactions.
Surveillance-based price discrimination and surge pricing do not include a reduction in the posted price that is uniformly offered or made available to all consumers who meet the disclosed eligibility criteria. A person may offer a loyalty, membership, or reward program if any personally identifiable information collected for the purpose of administering the program is not used to personalize, optimize, or otherwise modify the price of goods offered for sale to a consumer.
A person may not use an electronic shelf label system in retail locations 15,000 square feet or larger until January 1, 2030.
This section expires June 30, 2031.
The legislature finds that the practices covered by this chapter are matters vitally affecting the public interest for the purpose of applying the consumer protection act, chapter 19.86 RCW. A violation of this chapter is not reasonable in relation to the development and preservation of business and is an unfair or deceptive act in trade or commerce and an unfair method of competition for the purpose of applying the consumer protection act, chapter 19.86 RCW.
This chapter shall be known as the "fair pricing and transparency act."
The department shall study the use of electronic shelf label systems, as defined in section 2 of this act, and the impact of such systems on pricing transparency and employee job security. The department shall submit a report to the legislature with its findings and recommendations by June 30, 2029, in compliance with RCW 43.01.036.
This section expires June 30, 2031.