The Fair Price Protection Act targets individualized grocery prices based on shoppers’ personal data while preserving ordinary discounts and loyalty programs.
NEW JERSEY – New Jersey has enacted a consumer-protection law intended to prevent grocery sellers from using personal data to determine what an individual shopper pays for food and household necessities.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed the Fair Price Protection Act, P.L. 2026, c.55, on July 23. The law prohibits grocery retailers and third-party grocery platforms from varying prices based on information linked to a particular consumer, including online activity, location and purchase history.
The law distinguishes surveillance pricing from ordinary changes based on supply, demand or operating costs. Broadly available promotions, clearly disclosed group discounts and voluntary loyalty programs may continue. What the law targets is a price generated for a specific shopper because an algorithm predicts what that person may be willing or able to pay.
The covered products extend beyond fresh food. The enrolled legislation applies to categories including dairy products, meat, produce, beverages, baked goods, cleaning products, paper goods, health and beauty products, pet food and other items commonly sold by grocery retailers.
“New Jersey families are already feeling the pressure of higher costs. The last thing they need is companies secretly using their personal data to charge them more than someone else for the exact same product,” said Governor Mikie Sherrill. “If businesses want to compete, they should do so by offering better prices, not by finding new ways to squeeze shoppers. This law puts New Jersey shoppers first by protecting their privacy and ensuring fairness in pricing.”
Timing matters. The one-year moratorium on the new use of electronic shelf labels took effect upon enactment. Stores already using the labels may continue operating, repairing and replacing them. Most of the broader surveillance-pricing provisions take effect on Aug. 1, 2027, under the enrolled bill’s implementation schedule.
During the moratorium, the New Jersey Innovation Authority is directed to study electronic shelf labels and their potential connection to surveillance pricing. Electronic labels can update prices quickly, but the labels themselves do not necessarily create personalized prices.
NetChoice, a technology-industry association that opposed the legislation, argued that electronic labels can reduce pricing errors and paper waste. The law’s supporters maintain that a temporary pause is appropriate while the state examines whether the systems could be connected to consumer data and rapid individualized pricing.
The concern is not entirely hypothetical, although the prevalence of the practice remains uncertain. A Federal Trade Commission study found that pricing intermediaries can draw on information including precise location and browsing behavior to help businesses segment consumers or adjust offers. The FTC’s initial findings described the capabilities of those systems, not proof that New Jersey supermarkets were already imposing widespread individualized prices.
Violations will be treated as unlawful practices under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The attorney general may seek compliance orders, restitution and, for covered violations, the greater of actual monetary damages or $50,000, along with other relief allowed by a court.
For consumers, the practical distinction is straightforward: a store may still advertise a sale or offer the same loyalty discount to everyone enrolled in a program. It may not secretly determine that one identified shopper should pay more for the same grocery item because of that person’s digital profile.