NRF Targets Disclosure Requirements In Suit Against New York Algorithmic Pricing Law
"THIS PRICE WAS SET BY AN ALGORITHM USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA"
Imagine this text not only on every PDP page, search results, homepage, landing page, but also on every advertisement which contains pricing no matter how small the ad is for most retailers you know.
NRF last week filed suit against a NY State law which is set to be live today, July 8th.
Ostensibly, NY has introduced a law which requires that pricing based on protected status like race, gender or disability status. This part of the law, NRF seems to be OK with and is covered by other NY State laws.
It's the disclosure requirements themselves that are broader, and seem to be the focus of the NRF's ire.
Retailers must disclose they are using pricing which is linked to identifying consumer information. This includes very common retail-y things like:
* loyalty programs (obviously linked to a member ID)
* Club membership
* likely any discount triggered to ID (dot) me (I would guess?)
... and ironically on Prime Day, even Prime member discounts.
Ultimately, do I think the disclosure will matter? Probably not.
Why? Consumers hardly read anything. But still, why should retailers be forced to make a scary (all caps? Law is not clear) disclosure or face a $1,000 per violation. While only the NY State Attorney General can file lawsuits, retailers would get cease and desists, cure periods etc.
Also, I do think based on the fact that the NY Attorney General likely has better things to do with their time, if it is actually enforced it would only be against the biggest retailers.
Which reminds me... how would such disclosures affect AI LLMs reading retail datafeeds based in NY State? Asking for a friend. Would those disclosures have to show up in ChatGPT or Perplexity results?
But the most ironic part of this law is that retailers would be forced to identify the location of customers, using their specific data, which would allow them to display the disclosure to warn them against the use of pricing based on their specific data. Or, I guess, just show it to everyone. Which would be like yet another stupid banner we are all going to ignore.
