Monopoly Busters Caucus Chairs Call for an Investigation into Instacart’s Personalized Price Gouging

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Monopoly Busters Caucus Chairs, Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Pat Ryan (NY-18), and Angie Craig (MN-02), released the following statement calling for an investigation into Instacart's reported use of AI-driven surveillance pricing to charge different customers different prices for the same items:

"We are deeply alarmed by reports that Instacart is using AI to hike prices on unsuspecting customers based on their shopping habits. People shouldn't be charged higher prices than their neighbors for the same milk or eggs because their grocery app is profiling them. This is personalized price gouging, plain and simple.

"While hardworking Americans struggle to afford groceries, corporations like Instacart are inventing new ways to rip them off. Surveillance pricing is a blatant abuse of power by big tech - automating greed and making consumers pay the price.

"Enough is enough. With Instacart processing hundreds of millions of orders yearly, these practices warrant urgent action. The FTC and state regulators must immediately investigate Instacart and hold it accountable for ripping off its customers. And we need to ban personalized price gouging to ensure that everyone pays a fair price."

Background

Instacart's pricing tactics are detailed in a new report from Groundwork Collaborative and Consumer Reports, "Same Cart, Different Price." The report describes how Instacart uses AI-driven "price experiments" to maximize margins by charging different customers different prices for identical items at the same store. According to the report, Instacart deploys software from its subsidiary Eversight to identify the highest price an individual is willing to pay. This results in observed price swings as high as 23% and a potential "Instacart Tax" of $1,200 per year for a typical family. The investigation found that 74% of items tested were subject to these secret experiments.

Issues: Jobs, Labor, & the Economy, Science, Technology, & Antitrust