NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A11501
SPONSOR: Rules (Lucas) TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring food
retail establishments provide a ten percent discount when a customer
uses a self-service checkout kiosk
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to promote consumer fairness by requiring
retail stores and supermarkets that utilize self-checkout systems to
provide customers with a discount for performing tasks traditionally
completed by paid employees, including scanning, bagging, and processing
purchases. This bill recognizes the labor and cost savings generated
through self-checkout systems and ensures consumers receive a direct
financial benefit for participating in the checkout process themselves.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
JUSTIFICATION:
Retail businesses increasingly rely on self-checkout systems to reduce
staffing and operational costs by shifting responsibilities tradi-
tionally performed by employees onto consumers. Since customers are
effectively completing portions of the checkout labor themselves without
compensation, providing a mandatory discount helps ensure fairness,
acknowledges consumer participation in store operations, and allows the
public to share in the financial savings created by self-service tech-
nology.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
None
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This shall take effect on the 19th day after it shall have become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
11501
IN ASSEMBLY
May 28, 2026
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Lucas) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Consumer Affairs and
Protection
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring food
retail establishments provide a ten percent discount when a customer
uses a self-service checkout kiosk
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
2 396-ll to read as follows:
3 § 396-ll. Self-service checkouts. 1. For the purpose of this section,
4 the term:
5 (a) "food retail establishment" shall mean a supermarket, grocery
6 store or other food retailer.
7 (b) "self-service checkout" shall mean any automated process that
8 enables a customer to scan, bag, and pay for their purchases at an
9 in-store checkout kiosk and without human assistance.
10 (c) "self-service checkout kiosk" shall mean any machine at a fixed
11 location within a food retail establishment store at which a customer
12 can use self-service checkout for the customer's purchases.
13 (d) "supermarket" shall mean a physical retail store devoted to offer-
14 ing food for human consumption for sale to the general public.
15 2. Each food retail establishment which provides for self-service
16 checkout shall reduce the price of any goods purchased through a self-
17 service checkout kiosk by ten percent.
18 3. Whenever there shall be a violation of this section, an application
19 may be made by the attorney general in the name of the people of the
20 state of New York to a court or justice having jurisdiction by a special
21 proceeding to issue an injunction, and upon notice to the defendant of
22 not less than five days, to enjoin and restrain the continuance of such
23 violation; and if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the court or
24 justice that the defendant has, in fact, violated this section, an
25 injunction may be issued by such court or justice, enjoining and
26 restraining any further violation, without requiring proof that any
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15949-01-6
A. 11501 2
1 person has, in fact, been injured or damaged thereby. In any such
2 proceeding, the court may make allowances to the attorney general as
3 provided in paragraph six of subdivision (a) of section eighty-three
4 hundred three of the civil practice law and rules, and direct restitu-
5 tion.
6 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
7 have become a law.
