In the past few years, the
increasing popularity of online shopping has allowed customers to better
compare prices between competitors but has also allowed companies to collect a
large amount of data on its customers through click-through rates, IP geo-localisation
and cookies.
This important quantity of
data is sometimes used to better target ads or customize a search but can also
be used for price discrimination purposes.
A few years ago, Amazon.com started using information collected on
different buyers to charge individual customers different prices for the same
DVD titles. One buyer reportedly deleted the cookies on his
computer that identified him as a regular Amazon customer and watched the price
of a DVD offered to him for sale drop from $26.24 to $22.74. The strategy, as soon
as revealed, was the source of strong customer outrage that forced the company
to stop this pricing discrimination.
First, it is interesting to know that the practice is not exclusively
reserved for the online market. The same product often costs more in a store
located in a fancy area than in a store located in poorer one…
Secondly, a recent study revealed that two-thirds
of adult Internet users believed that it was illegal for online retailers to
charge different people different prices. It might surprise a lot but charging
different customers different prices for the same product is actually legal
unless the discrimination is based on a "suspect category" such as
race, religion, national origin or gender.
Now if you’re wondering how to protect yourself or
even take advantage from this discrimination, the answer is pretty simple: the
same way you wouldn’t wear your fanciest outfit to a flea market, you should "hide that you have money to spend" by often checking bargain hunter websites, following a few online tips such as booking
airline tickets on weekends when big corporations aren’t and finally you should delete the
cookies installed on you computer to limit the amount of information accessible
about you.
http://vulkan.worc.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/images/combined-paper.pdf
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