As the Federal Trade Commission begins to investigate eight companies’ use of surveillance pricing—including Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase and McKinsey—Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout spoke with Marketplace about the burgeoning practice of charging different people different prices for the same thing based on their individual circumstances.
That includes information like where you live, how much you make and where you shop.
There’s lots of anecdotal evidence that this is happening, per Zephyr Teachout at Fordham Law School. Take airfare, for example.
Still, “the truth is that what we don’t know about surveillance pricing could fill an ocean,” she said. “And right now a lot of consumers are in a state of rational paranoia.”