Surveillance Pricing: A Cautionary Summary of Potential Harms and Solutions

Surveillance pricing, a term that refers to the use of advanced algorithms and consumer information to set individualized prices, presents complex trade-offs between efficiency gains and consumer welfare. While having the potential to enhance market efficiency and consumer surplus, it raises concerns about excessive rent extraction, privacy erosion, and market concentration. We identify three primary potential harm categories: price effects approaching first-degree price discrimination under mar