STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8483--B
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
August 20, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. C. RYAN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules -- recommitted to
the Committee on Internet and Technology in accordance with Senate
Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting
online retailers from basing prices on certain criteria
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new section
2 219 to read as follows:
3 § 219. Online retailer pricing. 1. For the purposes of this section,
4 the following terms shall have the following meanings:
5 (a) "Bona fide discount" means a genuine reduction in price that is
6 referred to as such to consumers, may be reasonably interpreted as a
7 genuine reduction from a recent reference price at which a product or
8 service was openly and actively offered and actually sold to the public
9 in the regular course of business for a reasonably substantial period of
10 time, and is established absent of deceptive, abusive and unfair prac-
11 tices as required by section three hundred forty-nine of this chapter
12 and 16 CFR 233.
13 (b) "Consumer price" means the reference price with adjustments based
14 on bona fide discounts, including sales, coupons, promotions or other
15 discounts.
16 (c) "Reference price" means the actual amount a consumer must pay for
17 any good or service, including mandatory fees or charges necessary to
18 receive such good or service except taxes or fees imposed by a govern-
19 ment, that is openly and actively offered to the public in the regular
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13624-05-6
S. 8483--B 2
1 course of business for a reasonably substantial and recent period in
2 time.
3 (d) "Hardware state" shall mean the condition or mode of existence of
4 a system, component, or simulation, including, but not limited to,
5 battery life, number of wireless connections detected, and age of the
6 device, data that is erased when an online device is restarted or
7 powered down, and data that is retained when an online device is
8 restarted or powered down.
9 (e) "Online device" shall mean a physical object that has built-in
10 resources that allow it to communicate through the internet or a short-
11 range wireless technology and react to interface conditions, including,
12 but not limited to, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet, a
13 smartphone, or other smart hardware.
14 2. (a) A reference price offered to a consumer through such consumer's
15 online device shall not be generated by any online retailer or retail
16 mercantile establishment, in whole or in part, based on any of the
17 following input data:
18 (i) The hardware or hardware state of such online device;
19 (ii) The presence or absence of any software on such online device.
20 Provided, however, a consumer price may be offered to a consumer through
21 the consumer's online device if the consumer has downloaded an applica-
22 tion or software and opted into such application or software to purchase
23 a product or service; or
24 (iii) Geolocation data of the online device.
25 (b) Notwithstanding subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (a) of this subdi-
26 vision, the geolocation data of the online device may be used, and the
27 consumer's location may be accounted for, to generate a reference price
28 for the following reasons:
29 (i) To account for the differences in the costs or demands associated
30 with providing a good or service to different consumers;
31 (ii) A surcharge based on the real-time demand for the product or
32 service in the consumer's vicinity, if the product or service is
33 provided immediately upon request; or
34 (iii) Pricing based on price variances at different physical
35 locations, due to legitimate cost or demand differentials or state or
36 local government taxes, duties, or other fees.
37 (c) This section shall not apply to any bona fide discounts or any
38 other bona fide rebates, sales, or promotions that reduce the price of
39 goods or services, that are offered or made available to the general
40 public on the same terms, and do not incorporate input data as specified
41 in paragraph (a) of this subdivision.
42 3. The duties and obligations pursuant to this section are cumulative
43 with any other duties or obligations imposed under local, state, and
44 federal law and shall not be construed to relieve any party from any
45 duties or obligations imposed under any applicable laws.
46 4. Any person in violation of this article shall be subject to the
47 remedies and penalties available pursuant to section three hundred
48 forty-nine of this chapter and, in addition, shall be subject to a
49 supplemental civil penalty of not more than five thousand dollars for
50 the first violation, and twenty thousand dollars for each subsequent
51 violation, or the profits earned by violating the section, whichever is
52 greater, which may be recovered in a civil action brought by the attor-
53 ney general. Whenever a court determines that a violation of this
54 section has occurred, the court may impose any other civil penalty
55 and/or remedy deemed appropriate by the court. Civil penalties imposed
S. 8483--B 3
1 under this section and recovered by the attorney general shall be used
2 to enforce consumer protection and data privacy.
3 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
4 it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amend-
5 ment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implemen-
6 tation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and
7 completed on or before such effective date.
