Providing for prohibition on surveillance pricing; and imposing penalties.
Pennsylvania House Bill 1942 (2025), the proposed Surveillance Pricing Act, has not been enacted. It was referred to the House Committee on Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities on October 16, 2025. If enacted, it would bar any person from engaging in "surveillance pricing" (Section 3(a)). Section 2 defines that as offering or setting a customized price for a specific consumer or group based at least partly on personally identifiable information collected through electronic surveillance technology. Such technology includes sensors, cameras, device tracking and biometric monitoring. Section 3(b) lists exceptions: (1) price differences based solely on the cost of serving different consumers; (2) discounts for publicly disclosed criteria, such as mailing-list signup; (3) discounts for broad groups, such as teachers, military, seniors, students or residents of an area; (4) loyalty or rewards programs consumers affirmatively join; and (5) insurers, for pricing connected to insurance activity. Section 3(c) says a person does not violate the act when the pricing relies on a consumer report or commercial credit report and relates to credit terms, a transaction with a specific consumer, or a specific commercial enterprise. Section 3(d) requires discount programs that collect personal information to disclose clearly the eligibility criteria and conditions before collection, to offer the discount uniformly to all who qualify, and not to supplement the data with third-party information. Section 3(e) limits use of the collected data to administering the discount or program, and bars profiling and individualized price setting. Section 4 sets enforcement. The Attorney General or a district attorney may seek civil penalties of up to $12,500 per violation, counted per consumer or transaction. For intentional violations, the penalty could be up to three times that amount plus all revenues earned from the violation. Prevailing plaintiffs get attorney fees and costs, and courts may order injunctive or declaratory relief. Consumers may sue only for injunctive relief, with fees for prevailing plaintiffs. Section 5 voids any waiver of the act. Section 6 makes the remedies cumulative with other laws, including the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. Section 7 sets the effective date at 60 days after enactment.
Status history
Current status as of 2025-10-16
In committee
2025-10-16
observed 2026-09-08
Impact areas
- AI Policy
- Privacy & Data Protection
- Competition & Antitrust
- Algorithms & Automated Decisions