Regulators have an issue to solve: Dynamic pricing's cost

DYNAMIC PRICING RAISES ETHICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT NECESSITY, EQUITY AND TRANSPARENCY. INDIA MUST URGENTLY TACKLE THIS DELICATE FINANCIAL ISSUE IMPACTING MILLIONS

- AJAY SAGAR

Consumers are a worried lot as dynamic pricing is increasingly applied in their daily lives. The practice involves charging different prices to different consumers for the same product. A chocolate factory in the United States recently adopted dynamic pricing to adjust for turbulent cocoa markets. Surge pricing by cab aggregators during peak hours is another example. Last year, the United Kingdom's competition authority launched a probe into surge-based sales of concert tickets. India saw this trend after Covid-19 in the form of smaller packages of grocery items, and in the sale of airline tickets requiring government intervention after the Pahalgam terrorist attack. Even hospitals have introduced variations of surge pricing. Shoppers in Norway see grocery stores changing prices over hundred times a day. India has launched a pilot ‘one route, one fare’ on state-owned Alliance Air and an annual pass for national highways.