Some May Pay More Online
By George Anderson
An Associated Press report suggests that access to personal information
may help retailers get top dollar on sales to some consumers while others pay
lower prices for the same items.
Andrew Odlyzko of the University of Minnesota’s Digital Technology Center says
that such “price discrimination”, where the prices offered to a consumer are
based on what the shopper will pay instead of a single price for all consumers
“makes the economy much less transparent, which goes completely against the
basic assumptions people have been making, namely that with the Internet, everything
would be out in the open.”
Moderator’s Comment: Is “price discrimination” as described
in the Associated Press report an ethical business practice?
[George
Anderson – Moderator]
