The Seattle City Council is considering an ordinance that would bar companies from using algorithms and personal data to set prices, a practice critics call “surveillance pricing.” KOMO News reported this week that grocery retailers worry the proposed Fair Pricing and Transparency Ordinance is written broadly enough to put loyalty discounts and coupon programs at risk, even though the ordinance is intended to allow them.
KIRO host John Curley argued on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio that dynamic and personalized pricing isn’t new or predatory, and that banning it would hurt the same shoppers the city council said it wants to protect.
“Some consumers paying higher prices than others. Let’s see, how long has that been around? Well, I know 40 years when it came to American Airlines,” Curley said. “If somebody wants to buy the ticket on the seat to fly somewhere, and they want to fly, let’s say Sept. 5, right? The price is $100. But then some other guy finds out from his boss, ‘Hey, I need you in Atlanta by Monday.’ Guess what? He’s going to pay more than the other guy. Why? Because he needs to be in Atlanta. So what happened was they’re both selling the exact same seat, but it depended on the demand and the need of the one flyer compared to the other flyer.”
Curley traces personalized pricing back to ancient haggling
Curley separated the ordinance’s two targets — demand-based pricing, which he compared to Uber surge pricing, and personalized pricing based on a shopper’s own data — arguing the latter isn’t new either…