A Michigan Congresswoman is taking aim at stores she claims abruptly change prices depending on who is shopping.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib says big stores do more than use data to decide what coupons to send customers.

She alleges they consult security cameras and personal profiles, then adjust the cost of a given product.

Now the Detroit Democrat is introducing a bill in Congress to stop what she calls “surveillance pricing.”

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib: (Interview edited for clarity.) These big grocery stores like Target and Walmart are using surveillance of the way we shop, our ethnic backgrounds, our income and creating personal profiles on us. So my bill would prevent and prohibit them from using these characteristics about yourself, your shopping patterns and so forth, to fix the price. Especially when they are primarily looking at whether or not you could afford a price hike. It bans electronic shelf labels in large stores where they can automatically change the price. If there’s a heat wave they might want to price gouge and increase the cost of water. Or maybe they know this is a product you have to buy, you buy it every single time, and they’re increasing the cost because they know you got a raise at work. Again, a lot of this is personal data and personal information that should not be used in deciding what the price is. Everyone should be charged the same no matter their background, the color of their skin, their income, their ethnicity, where they shop, things of that nature. And so, we’re trying to prohibit this.

QK: Companies use so much data now to have an algorithm to send offers or other things that they target to customers. In your view, how can the government enforce or ensure that they’re not using that data to charge different prices for different people?

RT: Right now there’s no enforcement arm. So the bill establishes an enforcement arm within the Federal Trade Commission to hold corporations accountable. Our neighbors are struggling. Many, many have seen up to a 28% increase in the price of groceries. These corporate grocery chains are feeding customer data into algorithms and using big tech to decide whether or not they’re going to charge us more. This bill makes that illegal. And it pushes the Federal Trade Commission to prevent price hikes based on what I believe are discriminatory practices and violating people’s privacy. Companies should not be allowed to use any of this information, including electronic labeling or personal information, to charge you higher prices.

QK: Companies will argue that they’re doing this because it’s what customers want. If you’ve always bought a certain kind of bread, for example, they’re going to send you all these bread offers. Are you able to do something that would stop price gouging while still allowing them to continue sending you the offers they think you’re going to want?

RT: Do you not believe these big corporations want you in the stores? They just want to be able to squeeze more money out of you. They send you the coupons because they know these are the items you buy. But they’re going to use electronic labeling and examine what apps you are on and use facial recognition to increase costs on you. Much of it’s going to be done without your knowledge. It’s about how far they can go in charging you and knowing that you can afford it because they looked up and created a profile that says this is how much they make. Or this is an item they need, because maybe this is a personal hygiene item they’re required to use. Whatever it is, no one’s gender, color of their skin, income or the location that they’re shopping at should be used in fixing the price.

This all started when the head of Pepsi was interviewed when prices went up during the pandemic. The cost of groceries just skyrocketed. After that people thought it would stabilize and the prices would go down. But in his comments, he said, “Well, no, we’re not going to decrease prices. The people are already getting used to it.” For many of my residents and families, that’s what they want us to push out against, this increased cost when it’s not needed. They want fair prices, not based on any of this personal information and data.

QK: If it’s not some kind of an antitrust situation, can Congress or the government actually have an effect on what prices companies set?

RT: Absolutely. We saw this with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. CFPB did this with the big banks, where we watched how they built their business plans based on junk fees. We saw how Delta Airlines was charging more for family units regarding seats. All of that to say you saw CFPB, which unfortunately is under attack by the Trump administration, go after student loan servicers, go after a number of these companies. They set up their business plan to be profit-driven without protecting consumers. Laws are in place for different kinds of price fixes and increases. But there’s no prohibiting using surveillance pricing to jack-up prices. That’s where our bill comes into effect, trying to give some sort of enforcement under the Federal Trade Commission to push back against those practices.

QK: Congress has battled repeatedly this year, in particular, about budgetary items and spending or cuts demanded by the Trump administration. In this kind of a climate, are you concerned whether your proposal can make it through that partisan maze?

RT: I think that there’s so many residents across the country that see price-fixing and gouging and increases on their families, no matter if they’re Republican or Democrat. They don’t see this as a partisan issue. And I’m hoping when they understand this is an invasion of privacy, that technology is being used in this way to hurt families, I really believe they’re going to reach out to their members of Congress and ask them to support something like my bill. To push back against stores that have already been under fire for increasing costs when there’s heat waves and when there’s desperation among the community that they’re in. I think there is going to be a big, very non-partisan way of approaching this issue that’s going to be seen outside of Congress and not based on party affiliation. It’s already a struggle for many of our families to get fresh food. The basic grocery store trip should not be something where they’re going to get scammed. That’s what we’re trying to prevent here.