As grocery prices remain stubbornly high, and families struggle to afford everyday essentials, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer sounded the alarm on Instacart’s use of artificial intelligence to charge different customers different prices for the same exact grocery items. Schumer warned that AI-enabled pricing schemes allow large corporations to quietly raise prices behind the scenes, leaving some shoppers with significantly higher grocery bills than others for no legitimate reason. Schumer detailed how these deceptive pricing tactics could cost certain families as much as $1,200 more per year, with New Yorkers and Long Islanders especially vulnerable. Schumer said that consumers are being squeezed and that federal regulators must step in, calling the Federal Trade Commission “checked out” when it comes to protecting grocery shoppers. Schumer demanded new action from the FTC to crack down on AI-driven price gouging and ensure families are not being taken advantage of at the checkout line.

“When a shopper fills their grocery cart whether in real life or digitally, they should trust that they are being treated fairly and that prices are transparent. What we are seeing more and more of is that companies like Instacart are using artificial intelligence to rip off consumers by charging different shoppers different prices for the same exact items. This is jacking up grocery costs across New York City, Long Island, and across the nation. So, today, I am sounding the alarm on this predatory practice and demanding the federal government take new action to protect families from this shakedown pricing,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

According to Consumer Reports, many U.S. shoppers who order grocery deliveries through Instacart are unknowingly part of widespread AI-enabled experiments that price identical products differently for different customers—sometimes by as much as 23 percent. Based…