With more households struggling amid a teetering regional economy, Maryland leaders plan to pursue legislation that would bar retailers from using data-driven pricing tools to adjust the cost of specific grocery items throughout the day.
The Predatory Pricing Act, announced on Tuesday by Gov. Wes Moore (D) and the leaders of both General Assembly chambers, takes aim at retailers adopting electronic shelf labels — a system known as “dynamic pricing” that uses cameras, sensors and other tracking tools to adjust prices based on factors such as shopping patterns or the time of day.
In Tuesday’s announcement, Moore said the bill would prohibit intraday price changes for groceries, both in physical stores and online. The governor’s office has not yet filed the bill, but said that violations could carry civil penalties of up to $10,000 for a first offense and $25,000 for subsequent ones under Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act.
“Marylanders are feeling the rising cost of groceries, housing, and everyday necessities,” Moore said. “Technology should be used to help people, not to exploit them.”
When asked if the legislation would target specific companies in Maryland that are utilizing dynamic pricing practices, Moore declined to list any by name but noted the phenomenon has become more popular across the country — and said he’d heard increased testimony from residents about the problem.
Moore said he’d talked to Maryland residents who, despite getting the same grocery items every week at the same time, saw their bills grow by as much as 20 percent. Data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that grocery prices nationwide were up 2.4 percent in December compared to a year earlier.
“This is about profit squeezing — profit extracted from people who are already seeing their bills go up and who are struggling to afford basic goods,” Moore said. “The food you need should not cost more just because you need it.”
Moore illustrated the Predatory Pricing Act’s intent by holding Tuesday’s announcement inside BD Provisions, presenting the small grocery store just north of Annapolis as the opposite of large supermarkets that have experimented with data-driven pricing tools. Opened in 2023, the eco-focused store relies on a low-tech, bulk buy model: it contains more than 300 bins of items from wasabi peas to organic lentils that customers scoop themselves and purchase in partial measurements.
Owner Debra Saltz described the shop as “old school,” emphasizing the need for price transparency over using algorithms to determine how much a customer might be willing to pay.
“We are transparent in our pricing; you can see from looking at the bins,” Saltz said. “The price does not change based on who walks in the door or what the weather’s going to be. It changes based on what we’re being charged for our products.”
The governor was joined at BD Provisions by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) and House of Delegates Speaker Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s), who have both said that a top priority for the General Assembly this year will be passing laws that alleviate the economic burden for Maryland residents, many of whom are struggling to afford basic needs, including food, housing and their utility bills.
“Government must stand up for working families,” Peña-Melnyk said. “People are barely making it. These are really difficult times that we’re living in.”
The speaker, who represents parts of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties, said she has spoken with constituents who, because of the economy, are “making tough choices every month” about their spending — including those who are among the thousands of Maryland residents that lost jobs working for the federal government since President Trump took office last January.
“We have to address it,” she said of dynamic pricing practices. “We’re not going to talk about it, we are going to do something about it, and we’re going to make sure that by the time we adjourn that people feel that relief.”
The Predatory Pricing Act builds on a series of consumer protection measures state lawmakers have passed in recent years, including a 2023 law that strengthened price-gouging rules during declared states of emergency, and the 2024 Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, which restricted how companies collect and use personal data.
A key legislative focus this year, Ferguson said, is keeping grocery prices predictable and affordable.
“What we’re seeing in the world is a level of complexity in pricing that is unprecedented, based on the accumulation of personal data that is informing decisions,” he told reporters Tuesday morning during a news briefing in Annapolis. “The question is, at what point does this become abuse, and does it exploit people?”
While dynamic pricing itself is not new — airline fares routinely rise as departure dates approach, and prices for staples like milk, bread, and toilet paper often jump ahead of major storms — Ferguson said the bill is focused on price changes that happen within the same day and often out of consumers’ view.
“One day to the next, fine,” he said. “Within the same ten minutes that somebody’s in the store — they pick up a loaf of bread, then it’s a dollar more expensive — that’s the thing we’re trying to get at.”
Ferguson emphasized that the legislation is not aimed at small grocers “operating in good faith,” and said lawmakers would review the bill’s scope in the coming weeks as it moves through the legislature to ensure the language is appropriately tailored.
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