Ottawa’s new surveillance pricing rules not likely to take effect before 2028

OTTAWA — The federal government wants to be “super careful” as it tackles surveillance pricing, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said after tabling the government’s new privacy bill.

Under the plan outlined by Solomon, those rules on surveillance pricing are unlikely to be in place before 2028.

“It’s very easy to say just ban using personal information to give personal pricing, because we have to be super careful that we don’t want to penalize people who are members of a rewards program,” Solomon said Monday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The government introduced the bill Monday — its third attempt to update decades-old privacy laws covering the private sector.

At a press conference, Solomon said one of his first acts once the bill passes will be to direct the new online safety and privacy regulator to issue guidance on what counts as surveillance pricing.

He said in the interview Canadians will then be able to file complaints based on that guidance, which will state what’s allowed and what’s not allowed under the privacy legislation.

“If you don’t comply with that, you’ll be in contravention of the act, and the commission has the full authority to enforce it,” he said.

But government officials have said they expect it will take 18 months to get the new regulatory body in place.

The Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission of Canada would also be responsible for the proposed digital safety legislation, C-34, which would force social media platforms to block access for kids under 16 and regulate chatbots.

That regulator will be able to issue binding orders to organizations and levy fines — powers the current privacy commissioner does not have and has been requesting for years.

An Abacus Data poll reported this spring that most Canadians want the government to ban or regulate the use of algorithms to set prices. It defined algorithmic pricing as the adjustment of prices in real time based on such factors as who is buying, the time of day and browsing behaviour.

Algorithmic pricing can lead to a retailer charging different prices for products online, depending on what it can glean about a shopper’s habits.

Solomon defined surveillance pricing as when “your behaviour or location or even your inferred characteristics are used to basically give prices that are unfair or inappropriate to you.”

He said the new privacy bill is “pretty explicit that if in collecting information, the harms outweigh the benefits, then it will contravene the act.”

That means people who collect reward points to get discounts won’t be affected.

“We’re not going outlaw people who say, ‘Hey, I do get a discount because I’m a loyal shopper,'” Solomon said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2026.

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press