Weeks after a Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative investigation revealed that Instacart had been charging different customers different prices for identical groceries, the company added a $5.99 “regulatory response fee” to New York City deliveries. The fee appeared yesterday when Intro 1135, which established a minimum wage of more than $20 per hour for grocery delivery workers, took effect.
Instacart also set the default tip to 0% at checkout. Tips have historically made up a significant portion of delivery worker compensation on the platform.
“The regulatory response fee is the direct result of the city council’s misguided and burdensome grocery delivery laws, which took effect this week,” an Instacart spokesperson told Bushwick Daily. “For months we raised clear, data-backed concerns that the policy would increase grocery delivery costs for New Yorkers, but those warnings were repeatedly ignored.”
Council Member Sandy Nurse, who co-sponsored the wage legislation, called the fee “a deceptive cost” in a conversation with Bushwick Daily. “They are rolling the cost of paying their workers a fair wage onto the consumers when they themselves can pay that without charging the consumer,” she said. “Their intent in this is clearly to paint themselves as a victim of unfair regulation.”
“Multi-billion dollar companies can and should pay their workers a fair wage,” Nurse added. “They can afford to eat that cost. They can afford to put a little bit more towards their workers without harming their consumers.”
The pricing investigation, published Dec. 22, 2025, found that 74% of grocery items on Instacart were offered at different prices to different customers. Price differences reached as high as 23% for identical products. The researchers estimated the variable pricing cost a typical four-person household approximately $1,200 per year in additional charges. Instacart used an AI pricing platform called Eversight to set prices dynamically based on customer data and purchasing patterns.
Nurse did not mince words about those practices. “They just were caught engaging in surveillance pricing, which was illegal price gouging,” she told Bushwick Daily. “They literally are saying, because you buy these type of products and you’re in this zip code, you should pay more for this milk than someone else. It’s bullshit.”
On Jan. 8, 2026, the New York State Attorney General sent an information request to Instacart demanding details about the company’s pricing practices. Nurse said she encourages “an investigation into the practices of this company.”
The surveillance pricing revelation came on the heels of a separate federal enforcement action. In December 2025, Instacart agreed to a $60 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to resolve allegations of deceptive marketing and hidden fees, including undisclosed auto-enrollment in Instacart+ subscriptions. The funds will provide refunds to affected customers who were misled by “free delivery” claims that actually included hidden charges.
“This is a dubious company that is using all sorts of deceptive practices to squeeze every dollar, not only out of their workers, but out of their consumers,” Nurse said.
The fee and tip changes followed a months-long fight over delivery worker wages. In July 2025, the City Council passed Intro 1135 and companion legislation closing what advocates called the “Instacart loophole” — a distinction in city law that required minimum wage protections for restaurant delivery workers but not grocery delivery workers. Council Members Sandy Nurse and Jennifer Gutiérrez sponsored the legislation.
Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the bills on Aug. 13, 2025, one day before the legal deadline, after Instacart and Amazon lobbied against the measures. The Daily News reported that Randy Mastro, the mayor’s chief of staff, “launched an internal advocacy effort against the measures.” The Council overrode the veto on Sept. 10 with a supermajority vote.
Nurse rejected Instacart’s framing as a victim of overregulation. “They should do the right thing. They didn’t do the right thing. And we made them do the right thing,” she said. “And now they’re trying to be a victim. And we don’t buy it.”
The $5.99 fee is labeled specifically as a “regulatory response” in the Instacart app. The fee does not go to delivery workers. It is charged to consumers on each NYC delivery alongside existing service and delivery fees.
“Not only are we obligated to protect the workers, which is why we passed the minimum wage, but we need to protect the consumers when they’re being price gouged,” Nurse told Bushwick Daily. She said she plans to consult with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection about potential next steps. “I think Instacart could remove that fee and save themselves a whole other regulatory fight. And maybe they will. But if not, we’ll have to look at what we can do.”
Before Intro 1135, Instacart shoppers in New York City earned approximately $13 per hour with no benefits, no pay for waiting time, and no vehicle expense reimbursement, according to BK Reader. Restaurant delivery workers on competing platforms like DoorDash were already earning a minimum of $21.44 per hour under existing city regulations.
The AG’s Jan. 8 information request remains open. Instacart has not publicly stated whether the attorney general’s inquiry will extend beyond the algorithmic pricing practices to the fee structure implemented after the wage law took effect.
- How Amazon and Instacart lobbied Adams to veto delivery worker wage protections — An examination of corporate opposition to Intro 1135 and the internal City Hall dynamics that led to the mayor’s veto.
- NYC Council overrides Adams veto, secures $20+ minimum wage for grocery delivery workers — How Los Deliveristas Unidos and immigrant worker organizers secured the two-thirds majority needed to override.
