Maryland bans surveillance pricing

Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act on April 28, making Maryland the first state to enact a sector-specific restriction on what lawmakers and lawyers describe as surveillance pricing. The measure, House Bill 895, bars food retailers and third-party food delivery service providers from using dynamic pricing or consumer personal data to set prices for covered goods and services. (governor.maryland.gov) The law takes effect on October 1, 2026. The statute targets grocery stores and delivery platforms rather than the full retail economy. (governor.maryland.gov) Maryland’s bill page says the law prohibits a food retailer and a third-party delivery service provider from engaging in dynamic pricing or using consumer personal data to set a price for consumer goods or services, and makes violations enforceable under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. (mgaleg.maryland.gov) Governor Moore’s office said the law protects Marylanders from “data-driven price hikes in grocery stores.” ### Which businesses does the Maryland law actually cover? House Bill 895 applies to food retailers and third-party food delivery service providers, according to the enacted bill and Maryland’s legislative summary. The enrolled law focuses on food sold at retail and on delivery services tied to that sector, rather than creating a blanket ban across all merchants in the state. (governor.maryland.gov) Morgan Lewis, in a Lexology note published April 29, said the law is the first U.S. restriction aimed specifically at personalized pricing in the food sector. Greenberg Traurig, in a separate client note, said the measure followed Moore’s January 2026 proposal to stop the use of personal data to set individualized grocery prices. (mgaleg.maryland.gov) ### What does Maryland mean by “dynamic pricing” here? The enacted text defines “dynamic pricing” as offering or setting a personalized price for a good or service that is specific to a consumer based on that consumer’s personal data, regardless of whether the seller collected or purchased the data. The law ties “personal data” to definitions in Maryland’s Online Data Privacy Act. (mgaleg.maryland.gov) That means the Maryland law is not written as a general ban on every price change during the day. The focus is individualized pricing tied to a person’s data profile. Legal notes on Lexology said the covered data could include information such as browsing history, location, purchasing behavior or income, depending on how regulators and courts read the statute. (lexology.com) ### Does the law ban loyalty discounts and ordinary promotions? The statute includes carveouts for several common pricing practices. Lexology summaries of the enacted law say the exceptions include promotional pricing, loyalty and rewards program benefits, subscription pricing, certain temporary discounts aimed at retaining existing customers, price corrections, and some geographic- or supply-based price differences. (mgaleg.maryland.gov) Those exceptions matter because they narrow the law’s reach. Greenberg Traurig said businesses will need to assess whether existing targeted offers or AI-enabled pricing tools fall inside the statute’s prohibitions or within one of the listed exemptions. (lexology.com) ### How will Maryland enforce it? Maryland’s fiscal note says violations are treated as unfair, abusive, or deceptive trade practices under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. The Consumer Protection Division in the Office of the Attorney General investigates complaints and can seek conciliation, issue cease-and-desist orders, or file civil actions. Greenberg Traurig said the statute requires the attorney general’s office to issue notice of an alleged violation and provide a 45-day cure period before filing an enforcement action. (lexology.com) That detail appears in multiple legal analyses published after the bill became law. ### Why are lawyers treating this as a broader privacy story? Maryland enacted the law after passing the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act of 2024, which created statewide rules for how covered businesses process consumers’ personal data. (gtlaw.com) The surveillance-pricing law borrows from that framework by using the privacy law’s definition of personal data. Lexology articles published in May said Maryland had become the first state to restrict surveillance pricing in this way and described the law as part of growing scrutiny of algorithmic and personalized pricing. (mgaleg.maryland.gov) That interpretation comes from legal commentators, not from the statute itself. October 1, 2026, is the next concrete date. (gtlaw.com) On that date, House Bill 895 takes effect in Maryland, and enforcement will run through the state’s Consumer Protection Division under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. (mgaleg.maryland.gov) (lexology.com) (mgaleg.maryland.gov)