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DENVER, CO - The House today advanced a bill, sponsored by Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon and Representative Javier Mabrey, on a preliminary vote that would prohibit corporations from using consumers’ personal data to charge them more or pay them less.
“Consumers should not have to play against a supercomputer that is designed to squeeze every last dollar out of our wallets every time we go to the grocery store or buy something online,” said Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver. “Surveillance pricing and wage setting practices are spying on us and using that data to pay people less, charge them more and price-gouge hardworking Coloradans. With technology advancing at a rapid pace, we must act now to protect Colorado consumers and boost wages.”
“From airplane tickets to Uber wages, our personal data is being used against us by corporations to increase the price of goods or pay workers as little as possible,” said Rep. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver. “Our online activity, not just what we post and buy, is being used to price-gouge us and intentionally offer low-ball salaries to pad the pockets of mega-corporations. We’re pushing back against these deceptive practices to save Coloradans money, allow small businesses to stay competitive in the market and increase incomes for the hardworking people of our state.”
HB26-1210 would prohibit the use of a price or wage-setting algorithm that uses AI and other data processing techniques to strategically set prices or wages based on an individual’s surveillance data, including browsing and purchase history, financial status, habits and affiliations.
In recent years, corporations have increasingly weaponized price and wage setting to set prices at the highest amount someone is willing to pay and wages at the lowest amount that someone is willing to accept, based on data that is not publicly accessible and often collected without an individual’s knowledge or consent. For example, if someone searches for funeral homes online and then goes to book a plane ticket, an algorithm may judge that they are traveling for a funeral and would be willing to pay more for the flight. Engaging in these price or wage-setting practices would be considered a deceptive trade practice and could result in a civil penalty.
A 2025 Federal Trade Commission report found that individualized pricing tools are being used to target specific consumers with artificially-inflated prices for goods and services based on their surveillance data, such as a person’s location or the motion of a computer mouse. And earlier this year, the Washington Post began setting its subscription rates through individualized surveillance pricing.