1. United States
2. Ala.
3. Letter

I am writing to demand immediate action on the unchecked spread of dynamic pricing and algorithm-based price manipulation that is quietly making life unaffordable for millions of Americans. What was once marketed as a tool for “efficiency” has become a system of digital price gouging. Airlines, hotels, rental cars, groceries, insurance, event tickets, utilities, and even medical services now raise prices based on demand, location, time of day, device type, browsing history, and desperation. This is not a free market. It is automated exploitation. Families are punished for needing to travel during school breaks. Workers are punished for buying groceries after their shifts. Patients are punished for seeking care during emergencies. People are punished simply for existing at the wrong time or in the wrong ZIP code. This system strips consumers of one of the most basic rights in a functioning economy: knowing the price before making a decision. Dynamic pricing turns every purchase into a trap. You cannot budget. You cannot plan. You cannot comparison shop fairly. You are forced into a rigged game where corporations hold perfect information and citizens are kept deliberately in the dark. For people already living paycheck to paycheck, this is financial violence. It means skipping meals. It means choosing between medication and rent. It means parents quietly going without so their children can eat. All while corporations report record profits and hide behind algorithms to avoid accountability. We regulate insider trading. We regulate monopolies. We regulate false advertising. Yet we are allowing companies to run invisible auctions on necessities of life. That is unacceptable. I urge your administration to: • Require full transparency when prices are dynamically adjusted • Prohibit dynamic pricing on essential goods and services • Ban pricing based on personal data such as location, income level, or browsing behavior • Enforce strict consumer protection laws against algorithmic price discrimination • Treat exploitative pricing systems as economic harm, not innovation Technology should serve the public. It should not be used to squeeze people until they break. Americans are exhausted. We are working harder for less security, less stability, and fewer guarantees than any generation before us. Dynamic pricing is pouring gasoline on an already burning cost-of-living crisis. Leadership means drawing a line when corporate profit comes at the expense of human dignity. This is that moment.