As data analytics and pricing algorithms become common business practice in the digital era, there are growing concerns about the possibility that companies use such tools to engage in personalised pricing, a form of price discrimination that involves charging different prices to consumers according to their willingness to pay. While personalised pricing has the potential to improve allocative efficiency and benefit low-end consumers who would otherwise be underserved, in some occasions it can also lead to a loss in total consumer welfare. Moreover, if these practices are conducted using non-transparent or deceptive means, there is also a risk that they reduce market trust and create a perception of unfairness, potentially dampening consumer participation in digital markets. In November 2018, the OECD Consumer Protection and Competition committees jointly discussed the ambiguous and multi-dimensional effects of personalised pricing, notably whether the risks of personalised pricing deserve a policy intervention and, if so, what are the most appropriate competition and consumer protection tools to address them.
SEE ALSO OECD best practice roundtables on competition OECD Handbook on Competition Policy in the Digital Age
INVITED SPEAKER Alexandre DE STREEL Bio
KEY PAPERS OECD Background Note • Note de Référence Executive Summary with key findings • Synthèse des points clés de la discussion Detailed summary of the discussion • Compte rendu detaillé de la discussion |
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RELATED DOCUMENTS AND LINKS OECD Handbook on Competition Policy in the Digital Age Antitrust and the trust machine, 2020 Implications of E-commerce for Competition Policy, 2018 Improving Online Disclosures with Behavioural Insight, 2018 Algorithms and collusion: Competition policy in the digital age, 2017 Big data: Bringing competition policy to the digital era, 2016 Price discrimination and competition, 2016 Data-Driven Innovation: Big Data for Growth and Well-Being, 2015 |
RELATED TOPICS Abuse of dominance and monopolisation Competition enforcement practices Digital Economy, Innovation and Competition |
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