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The “Shoppers’ Bill of Rights” is a 12-part consumer-protection proposal unveiled by Groundwork Collaborative on September 28, 2026. It calls for limits on practices including personalized pricing and frequent price changes, but it is an advocacy agenda—not a law Congress has passed. Its pricing proposals are one part of a broader plan addressing fees, cancellation, repairs, AI shopping assistants, refunds, billing, resale and competition.
What the Shoppers’ Bill of Rights proposes
Groundwork Collaborative, led publicly by President and CEO Lindsay Owens, asks policymakers to establish 12 consumer protections. The organization says shoppers should not have to decipher hidden charges, navigate difficult cancellations or compete with pricing systems that use personal information. Owens put the concern this way: “Shoppers shouldn’t have to outsmart an algorithm, decode the fine print, or fight their way out of a subscription just to get a fair deal.”
The requested protections cover:
- Prices that include mandatory fees;
- Fair prices not set using personal data;
- Predictable prices;
- Easy subscription cancellation;
- Access to repair parts, tools, software and manuals;
- AI shopping assistants that act in shoppers’ interests;
- Fair resale practices;
- A level playing field for small businesses;
- Unit-price comparisons;
- Fair refunds;
- Proper billing; and
- Competitive prices not coordinated through common pricing software.
These are protections Groundwork is asking for, not rights created by a single enacted federal law. The organization’s announcement reports that Blue Rose Research polling found two-thirds of Americans support the proposal. It also reports nearly 75% support making subscription cancellation as easy as signup, nearly seven in ten support upfront all-in pricing, and 65% support banning surveillance pricing. The announcement does not provide the polling’s field dates, sample size or methodology, so these figures should be read as the organization’s account of the results, not as independently verified national estimates.
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Dynamic pricing means a seller changes a price in response to factors such as demand or inventory. Surveillance pricing—also called personalized pricing—means a seller uses an individual shopper’s data or inferred characteristics to determine that shopper’s price. The practices can be discussed together, but they are not interchangeable: a price can change for everyone without being personalized, and a personalized price can be set without a visible, market-wide price swing.
Groundwork argues shoppers often cannot tell whether a sudden increase reflects scarcity, changing costs or an algorithm’s use of personal information. Its report does not claim that every variable price is abusive: changes may reflect costs, preferences or other market factors. Instead, it recommends against arbitrary or high-frequency changes. Its report says, “Prices should not shift arbitrarily nor at a high frequency.” That is the proposal’s standard, not a current legal rule.
How the proposal treats essentials and scarce goods
For essentials such as groceries and medical supplies, Groundwork advocates a ban on dynamic pricing. For scarce nonessential goods, it would allow more flexibility if price tiers and changes are predictable and transparent. These are policy recommendations; they do not describe a nationwide ban currently in force.
Questions to ask about a changing price
To understand a particular pricing practice, consider whether the price responds to broad demand or inventory, or to an individual shopper’s data; whether the item is genuinely scarce or an essential with few alternatives; how frequently the price changes and whether it changes before or after a shopper commits; whether the total price and mandatory fees are disclosed in advance; and whether a discount follows clear public eligibility rules or individualized profiling. These are useful distinctions for understanding the debate, not a formal legal test.
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The Federal Trade Commission’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees FAQ says businesses may use demand- or inventory-based dynamic pricing under the rule if pricing information is not misleading. In covered contexts, mandatory fees generally must be included in the displayed total price, and the final amount must be shown before payment. That fee rule does not establish Groundwork’s proposed restrictions on how often prices may change.
The FTC’s personalized-pricing statement was a draft
On August 19, 2026, the FTC announced a proposed enforcement policy statement on personalized pricing. The agency updated the release on August 31 to correct an earlier error. Chairman Andrew Ferguson said: “The FTC does not have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all circumstances, but businesses that fail to tell consumers how their personal data is being used to set a price may be in violation of the FTC Act and other laws we enforce.” The draft’s comment deadline was September 18, 2026. It was a proposed enforcement policy—not a final regulation or a blanket federal ban. See the FTC announcement for its status and details.
Separate bills have their own legislative status
Groundwork’s proposal is distinct from legislation introduced in Congress or considered by a state legislature. Status matters: an introduced bill or a measure passed by one legislative chamber is not, by itself, an enacted law.
Rank #4
| Measure | Status in the cited record | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| H.R. 9371, the Shedding Light on Algorithms Setting Higher Prices Act | Introduced in the 119th Congress on June 18, 2026; referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. | The Government Publishing Office record identifies it as an introduced bill, not an enacted law. GPO bill record |
| New York S8623 | The New York State Senate said it passed the bill on June 5, 2026; the page showed Assembly action as pending. | The cited Senate release does not establish that the measure became New York law. Senate release and status |
Electronic shelf labels do not prove personalized pricing
An electronic shelf label is a digital display that can show a price and can support price updates. The presence of that equipment alone does not establish that a retailer changes prices frequently, ties prices to an individual shopper or uses surveillance pricing. Those are separate claims about what the retailer does and how it sets a price.
The central issue in the proposal is therefore not simply whether a price can change on a screen. It is what drives the change, how predictable and transparent it is, whether a shopper’s personal data is involved, and whether the product is an essential or a genuinely scarce item. Groundwork’s agenda seeks broader protections across digital commerce, while current federal fee guidance addresses misleading price information and required fee disclosures rather than imposing the agenda’s proposed limits on price changes.
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