The New Jersey Fair Price Protection Act (A4085) prohibits retail food stores and third-party grocery delivery platforms from using a consumer’s personal data to set individualized prices, a practice commonly called surveillance pricing. Governor Mikie Sherrill signed it on July 23, 2026. Most provisions take effect August 1, 2027, and a separate moratorium provision begins February 1, 2027.
What the Fair Price Protection Act Covers
The law targets pricing that varies from one shopper to another based on who the shopper is. Personal data in scope includes online activity, location, purchasing history, biometric data, genetic information, and protected class characteristics. Using any of it to determine or vary the price of groceries and other foodstuffs is prohibited.
Standard retail practices survive. Loyalty programs, coupons, and advertised discounts offered on the same terms to everyone are not banned. The law also imposes a one-year moratorium on new deployments of electronic shelf labels, which are the mechanism that makes rapid individualized price changes practical in a physical store.
Penalties and Enforcement
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office enforces the act, with fines reaching up to twenty thousand dollars per violation alongside additional civil enforcement penalties. New Jersey joins New York, Connecticut, and Maryland in restricting the use of personal data in pricing.
What Retailers Should Do
Food retailers and delivery platforms serving New Jersey should map every input their pricing engine uses and identify anything tied to an individual shopper rather than to the product, the store, or the time of day. Any electronic shelf label rollout planned for 2027 should be checked against the moratorium date before hardware is ordered.
Source: Office of the Governor of New Jersey: Fair Price Protection Act signing
Report a violation: If you believe a business is violating this law, you can file a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.
