Invisible Variable Pricing

2025-06-28

Lately, we aren’t all getting the same price for the same product. Is the rise of data-driven “personalized pricing” corporate innovation or just next-gen gouging?
https://lately.simplecast.com/episodes/the-end-of-the-fixed-price-TdmlL6c9

Surveillance pricing lets corporations decide what your dollar is worth: From each according his ability (to pay). 
https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/24/price-discrimination/

BEFORE JULY 22 listen to that podcast and/or read Corey Doctorow's artcle, and then head on over to https://www.canada.ca/en/competition-bureau/news/2025/06/competition-bureau-seeks-feedback-on-algorithmic-pricing-and-competition.html  to give your opinion on algorithmic pricing to the Canadian Competition Bureau.

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Real world example from this very morning: when talking with a friend of my concerns, they shared that a premier hotel booking service gave them a price markup of $650 when they mistakenly did not remember to open a private browsing session before asking. Egregiously, the inflated figure was presented as a 10%-off discount, vs the anonymous 30% discount!

    $3,250 : normal, base rate
    $2,925 : we-know-who-you-are
    $2,275 : anonymous, check out as guest

We just spent more than that on a recent trip, and I used the same booking site. It's sickening to learn we may have paid 20% more because of creating an account, logging in, etc., etc. with what seemed to be a trustworthy service.