Governor Sherrill is set to face one of the first major affordability decisions of her administration.
Legislation has been sent to her desk that purports to protect New Jersey consumers from “surveillance pricing” — the practice of using personal data to set individualized prices or fees. The goal is important. No family should be charged more for groceries or essentials because a company is exploiting their personal information. Instacart fully supports the underlying goal to ban it.
But as passed, New Jersey’s S-3612/A-4085, the so-called “Fair Price Protection Act,” risks doing something very different: making it harder for families to access the digital coupons, loyalty rewards, and personalized grocery discounts they rely on every week to stretch their budgets.
That is not consumer protection.
Lawmakers are right to take this issue seriously, especially at a time when families are worried both about the rising cost of groceries and how their data is being used in an increasingly digital economy. But good intentions do not automatically make good policy.
The challenge with this bill is that it is written so broadly that it sweeps in the very tools retailers use every day to lower prices for consumers. The same data that can help a grocer offer a shopper a coupon on baby formula, a discount on produce, or a loyalty reward on household staples will be restricted under a bill that was originally conceived to try to stop prices from going up.
For New Jersey families already navigating high grocery bills, that distinction matters. A targeted discount on milk, eggs, diapers, or fresh food is not a luxury. For many households, it is part of how they make the weekly budget work.
New Jersey is not the first state to confront this issue. And it should not repeat the mistakes other states have already made. Just a few weeks ago, Colorado’s governor vetoed similar legislation — not because he opposed the goal of stopping surveillance pricing, but because the bill was too broadly written. In his veto message, he warned that the legislation would end up “punishing differentially lower prices, not just higher prices,” and could mean that many Coloradans would lose discounts on items they buy. Delaware lawmakers recently reached a similar conclusion, allowing comparable legislation to stall rather than advance a bill that would actually limit consumer savings in a time of rising costs.
Maryland offers a better model. Earlier this year, the state became in the country to ban price manipulation driven by surveillance data. But critically, state leaders worked with consumer advocates, business groups, technology companies, and retailers to carefully scope the law. The result was legislation that targets the actual harmful practice of using surveillance data to raise prices, while preserving the coupons, loyalty programs, and personalized offers that help families save.
New Jerseyans should insist on the same balance.
Governor Sherrill ran on affordability. She promised to lower costs for middle-class families. She took action on utility costs on her very first day in office. Now she has a chance to prevent New Jersey from becoming the first state to jeopardize the grocery coupons countless families depend on.
No one should be allowed to use personal data to charge families more. But New Jersey should not pass a law that could make it harder for families to pay less.
There is still time to get this right. Governor Sherrill can protect consumers from genuine price manipulation without putting coupons, loyalty rewards, and grocery discounts at risk.
For New Jersey families, that is the difference between a bill that sounds good — and a law that actually helps.
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Casey Aden-Wansbury is Instacart’s Vice President, Head of Global Public Policy, where she leads government relations, public engagement, policy development, research, and social impact for the leading grocery technology company in North America. Named one of the nation’s top lobbyists (National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics), Casey also serves on the boards of the Alliance to End Hunger and Flex. Before Instacart, Casey directed federal affairs at Airbnb, and she previously served for over a decade in the United States Senate, as a chief of staff and communications director.
