Washington, D.C. — As Americans across the country continue to grapple with skyrocketing costs for essential goods, the American Economic Liberties Project today launched The Fair Price Fight initiative, an online resource to empower state lawmakers to combat the new frontier of deceptive pricing tactics—from invasive surveillance-based pricing and algorithm-driven rent hikes to predatory junk fees—including tools, policy briefs, and the development of model legislation designed to help state and local governments hold corporations to account.

Economic Liberties has been working closely with lawmakers and advocates in states across the country to develop, introduce, and advance legislation to ban these practices. In 2025 alone, dozens of state bills and local ordinances have been introduced, with several already signed into law.

“Americans are fed up with being ripped off by corporations using algorithms and surveillance tech to exploit every corner of the economy,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Not satisfied with bogus junk fees tacked on to purchases or rent hikes-via algorithm, companies are now using intimate personal data to quietly charge people more just because of where they live, what kind of phone they have, or how desperate they seem. We’ve been working with state and local lawmakers across the country to end these dystopian practices, but now the time is right for a national movement. The Fair Price Fight initiative makes clear that states don’t have to wait on Washington—they have the tools right now to crack down on these deceptive tactics and restore fairness to markets in their communities.”

“You can’t talk about affordability without understanding how and why prices are set,” said Lee Hepner, Senior Legal Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “As prices increasingly lose any connection from costs and value, it’s no wonder that Americans are left feeling ambushed every time they make a purchase. This is a fight against dominant corporations and their paid chorus of lobbyists, lawyers, and economists that want the public to accept these abuses as the natural order. But they aren’t inevitable. With sweeping wins this year in California, Virginia, New York, and more, it’s clear that the tide is turning.”

The Fair Price Fight initiative focuses on three particularly damaging corporate pricing practices—surveillance pricing, algorithmic price fixing, and junk fees—shedding light on these tactics and providing the resources to empower state lawmakers to stop them. These resources include model legislation for lawmakers to use, policy briefs, and interactive maps that track where bills against these tactics are moving. The initiative will serve as a living resource for lawmakers, advocates, researchers, journalists, and every day Americans invested in the fight against unfair, dystopian pricing tactics.

Visit The Fair Price Fight to learn more here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.