New York Attorney General Letitia James said talks with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office and a powerful business group are underway about possible changes to a bill that bans surveillance pricing.
The bill, approved by the Assembly and Senate in the rush to approve a new state budget, would prevent retailers from using data about individual shoppers to charge them more for an item than other shoppers would be charged.
Governor Hochul was noncommittal when asked last week whether she would sign the bill into law, require changes, or veto it. The process of making changes to a bill after passage by the legislature and as a requirement for the governor to sign it into law is called a chapter amendment.
In Oswego Tuesday for a fundraiser, however, James said discussions with the governor’s office about chapter amendments are underway.
The Business Council of New York opposes the bill, claiming it will eliminate several categories of discounts consumers use routinely. James said the discussion on chapter amendments includes the Business Council, an indication that the governor is listening to the powerful business lobbying group.
“They argue it’s going to have an impact on discounts and that’s just not true at all,” James said. “If individuals take advantage of discounts or rewards, it’s all protected under our legislation and under the bill that we hope the governor will sign.”
The issue drew large cheers from the crowd of about 200 Democrats gathered for the Tuesday event in Oswego as James told them businesses “should not be predatory and they should not use algorithms and our personal data against us.”
She said that another bill, regulating electronic price tags on store shelves, failed to pass the legislature this year but will be brought back next year. Opponents believe those tags could use a shopper’s personal data to change the price on an item when it detects the shopper’s phone in the vicinity.