Seattle bans surveillance pricing

Grocery workers’ advocacy secures an ordinance preventing grocery companies from using “AI-powered price-gouging”

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle is now home to the “strongest ban on surveillance pricing in the country,” celebrates UFCW Local 3000 as the Seattle City Council took action Tuesday to pass Mayor Katie Wilson’s Fair Pricing and Transparency ordinance targeting the use of algorithmic pricing in grocery stores.

“Passing the strongest ban on AI-powered price-gouging on groceries feels historic,” said Kristen Wilder, a Seattle grocery store worker at UFCW 3000 member in a statement from the union. “My coworkers and the customers we serve proudly stood together to stop the grocery industry from imposing this scheme here in Seattle. Today that worked paid off for families who just want to know they’re paying a fair price and for workers who want to focus on customer service instead of defending some algorithm making decisions in a black box.”

Photo: UFCW Local 3000

Surveillance pricing uses customers’ personal data and digital software to charge customers different prices for the same product. It’s a practice that could have seen Seattle families paying hundreds more for groceries each year.

Per UFCW Local 3000: “We believe that today’s vote means that Seattle shoppers will pay the same price for the same product when they’re shopping at the same store, and that grocery store workers won’t have to spend time trying to explain secret algorithmic decisions to customers expressing understandable frustration and confusion over paying different prices for the same items. ”

The union credited grocery workers’ advocacy for the ordinances’ passage, as well as Seattle City Council Members Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Dionne Foster, and Rob Saka for resisting industry efforts to create loopholes and gut enforcement.

“Today’s vote demonstrates the immense power of working people standing together with the communities we serve,” said UFCW 3000 Secretary-Treasurer Sean Embly. “When we work together, we can protect our neighborhood stores from predatory practices that put profits over people. We hope the passage of this legislation helps us all return to the work of feeding our communities instead of feeding Wall Street’s greed.”