United States of America: California Department of Justice launched investigative sweep into surveillance pricing under California Consumer Privacy Act

On 27 January 2026, the California Department of Justice launched an investigative sweep into businesses’ use of consumers’ personal information to set targeted, individualised prices for goods and services, referred to as surveillance pricing. The Department stated that surveillance pricing may trigger obligations under and violate the California Consumer Privacy Act, including the purpose limitation principle that limits the use of personal information to purposes consistent with consumers’ reasonable expectations. As part of the investigative sweep, the Department announced that it was sending letters to businesses with a significant online presence in the retail, grocery, and hotel sectors requesting information on how these businesses use consumers’ shopping history, internet browsing history, location data, demographic data, inferential data, or other personal information to set prices. The letters also request information on policies and public disclosures relating to personalised pricing, pricing experiments, and measures taken to comply with algorithmic pricing, competition, and civil rights laws.