Instacart halts 'item price tests' amid scrutiny of its AI tools

Instacart is ending its "item price tests," following public criticism and questions from federal regulators about how prices are set on the platform.

Instacart is ending its "item price tests" for retailers, the company announced Monday, following public criticism and reported questions from federal regulators about how prices on the shopping and delivery platform are set.

"We understand that the tests we ran with a small number of retail partners that resulted in different prices for the same item at the same store missed the mark for some customers," Instacart said in a statement.

"That’s why, effective immediately, Instacart is ending all item price tests on our platform. Retailers will no longer be able to use Eversight technology to run item price tests on Instacart," the company said, referring to its Eversight artificial intelligence software.

The controversy over pricing on Instacart arose earlier this month, when several nonprofit consumer advocate groups published a report Dec. 9 containing examples of prices that varied among customers who were shopping for the same item at the same store on Instacart.

According to the report from Groundwork Collaborative, "Consumer Reports" and More Perfect Union, some customers were charged as much as 23% more than others who bought the same item in the same location at the same time.