Pricing And 'Price Discrimination'

摘要

"Price discrimination" may sound like a dirty word to drycleaners. Cleaners have been sued successfully over gender-based pricing in several U.S. cities. The International Fabricare Institute (IFI) feels so strongly about the topic that it made equal pricing a mandatory qualification for certification under its Award of Excellence program. But what is "price discrimination," and why is it problematic? It is defined as charging a person or group a different price for the same product. It has been common since money was created, and exists in most marketplaces today. Examples are all around us: A "baker's dozen" is price discrimination; so is a senior citizens' discount.