For the second time in a year, Gov. Jared Polis has vetoed legislation that was intended to curb the use of price-setting algorithms in Colorado.
On Tuesday, Polis rejected , which would’ve prohibited companies from using the vast amounts of data collected on Coloradans to set individualized prices on goods like groceries and electronics. The bill also would have barred companies like Uber and Lyft from using that information to set differing wages for drivers.
Supporters of the bill, which was passed with support only from Democratic lawmakers, argued that the technology was used to set prices at the highest level a consumer was willing to pay — or the lowest wage that a worker was willing to accept — based on that person’s location and other characteristics.
Polis had already signaled his skepticism of the bill because, his office said, it might “interfere with the free functioning of markets.”
In his veto statement Tuesday, he echoed objections raised by the business and tech communities, which opposed the bill en masse, that HB-1210 was too broad and would prevent those companies from offering lower prices and discounts to consumers. The bill carved out discount and loyalty programs, but Polis said he “found little comfort” in those exemptions.
“I am concerned that instead of advancing a policy to specifically target clearly egregious price gouging practices,” he wrote, “this broader framework will inadvertently capture innocuous uses of technology that in no way harms — and indeed benefits — consumers and workers.”
The bill was backed by progressive organizations and consumer groups. Amid growing interest among policymakers in regulating the practice, it would’ve been the strongest regulation of its kind in the United States.
“Everybody is talking about how concerned they are with the rising cost of living, and this bill was about preventing companies from spying on us to price gouge us,” Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat who sponsored HB-1210, said Tuesday. “I don’t know how anyone can credibly make the case that it’s a good thing for the biggest companies in the world to know everything about us in how they set our prices.”
HB-1210 was the latest in a slew of pro-tech and pro-business vetoes by Polis in recent years, and it was the only one of Democrats’ three marquee affordability measures to pass the legislature this year.
Its demise came almost exactly 12 months after Polis vetoed another Democratic priority bill, 2025’s . That measure would have prohibited landlords from using algorithmic software to set home rental prices, a practice that cost Denver renters more than $1,600 per year, according to a study by the Biden administration.
On Tuesday, Polis also vetoed , which would’ve reformed parts of the state’s arbitration rules, and , which sought to curb the distribution of single-use serviceware by restaurants and delivery services. That bill would have required them to provide single-use utensils, napkins, condiment packets, straws, chopsticks and other items to customers only upon request.
Tuesday’s rejections bring Polis’ veto total for the year to nine, two shy of his single-year record. He has until mid-June to sign or reject bills, or to allow them to pass into law without his signature.
