The Seattle City Council banned large grocery chains from using AI and shopper data for personalized prices, critics say families could lose discounts and face higher bills.
Lawmakers approved the ordinance Tuesday on a 7-2 vote, restricting large grocery chains and online shopping services from using customer data and artificial intelligence to calculate individual prices. The measure also requires stores to post prices clearly and make them equally available to all shoppers.
The Center Square reported that Mayor Katie Wilson is expected to sign the bill in the next several days. It is scheduled to take effect September 1, 2027, and would make Seattle the first city in the United States to ban algorithm-based grocery pricing.
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck sponsored the legislation. She cast the fight as a response to rising food costs and corporate use of private data.
Wilson backed the plan after passage. In a press release she said food is “an essential good that's getting more expensive all the time,” and added that people “don't want their data fed into algorithms that decide how much they pay at the grocery store.”
"Everyone deserves transparent pricing and equal treatment, not hidden systems that charge some shoppers more than others."
Two council members rejected that framing and voted no: Maritza Rivera and Bob Kettle.
Supermarket chains lobbied hard against the bill. Safeway stores across Seattle posted in-store signs pointing customers to an industry-backed campaign site, protectseattlesavings.com.
That campaign said Seattle families could lose an average of $100 a month in discounts if targeted promotions disappear. Rivera cited the same risk in her statement opposing the ordinance.
"It's now very possible those programs will go away, and groceries could become even more expensive."
Rivera said she heard from consumers in her district and across the city who “don't want this and think that the Council is meddling in a way that could hurt rather than help them.” She called the ordinance “overly broad” and said it “has the potential to backfire.”
Safeway spokeswoman Sara Osborne said Wednesday the company strongly disagrees with the council’s decision. She said Safeway “does not engage in the pricing practices this ordinance claims to address, yet the measure will restrict personalized deals that help customers save on groceries.”
"We will, of course, comply with all applicable laws and regulations, but we do not support legislation that makes it harder for customers to save."
The ordinance grew out of a 2025 Consumer Reports investigation. The group served as a technical advisor to the city while the bill was written.
Consumer Reports had nearly 400 shoppers buy the same basket of goods at the same time through Instacart. Its analysis found different prices quoted for the same products from the same store at the same time, with differences of up to 23 percent.
Rinck used those findings to argue that national grocery corporations profit by “buying, selling and leveraging our private information to manipulate prices” while everyday Seattleites pay more.
State-level bills on similar pricing practices already moved in Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Seattle’s vote is the first city-level ban of its kind described in the reporting.
Supporters frame the rule as simple fairness: one posted price, no hidden markups driven by data profiles. Opponents say the same rule can flatten the personalized coupons and loyalty deals many households actually use to keep grocery bills down.
Osborne’s point was direct. Even if Safeway denies the practices the ordinance targets, the law still limits tools that deliver savings. Rivera made the same practical case from inside the council: programs shoppers rely on may disappear, and prices may climb.
The effective date is more than a year and a half away. That gives chains time to redesign promotions, drop targeted offers, or pass higher costs along. What it does not give Seattle families is a guarantee that “equal treatment” will mean lower bills.
Wilson and Rinck sold the ban as protection against algorithms that charge some shoppers more. Rivera, Kettle, Safeway, and the industry campaign warned that broad limits on data-driven deals can erase the discounts that make groceries affordable for the rest.
When city hall rewrites the price tag, shoppers should watch their receipts, not the press release.