AB 446: Surveillance pricing.

Existing law, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), grants a consumer various rights with respect to personal information that is collected or sold by a business, as defined, including the right to direct a business that sells or shares personal information about the consumer to third parties not to sell or share the consumers personal information, as specified. Existing law, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, approved by the voters as Proposition 24 at the November 3, 2020, statewide general election, amended, added to, and reenacted the CCPA and establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency and vests the agency with full administrative power, authority, and jurisdiction to enforce those provisions.

Existing law requires a retail grocery store or grocery department within a general retail merchandise store that uses a point-of-sale system to have a clearly readable price indicated on 85% of the total number of packaged consumer commodities offered for sale, subject to specified exemptions.

This bill would, subject to certain exceptions, prohibit a person grocery establishment, as defined, from engaging in surveillance pricing. The bill would define surveillance pricing to mean offering or setting a customized price increase for a good or service for a specific consumer or group of consumers, based, in whole or in part, on personally identifiable information collected through electronic surveillance technology, as specified. The bill would provide that only a public prosecutor, as specified, may bring an action against a violator of these provisions to recover specified civil penalties, injunctive relief, and reasonable attorneys fees and costs, and would authorize a consumer to bring an action for injunctive relief and reasonable attorneys fees and costs. The bill would declare that any waiver of these provisions is against public policy and is void and unenforceable.

This bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes and intent of the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020.