A national retail analyst doesn’t believe that a ban on so-called surveillance pricing is necessary in Canada.
Hotels, airlines and ride shares already use surge pricing, setting different prices for customers based on periods of high demand.
Surveillance pricing, however, uses data collected from consumers to determine how much a particular customer is willing to pay for an item, raising red flags among consumer groups and some politicians.
The NDP is calling on Ottawa to ban the practice, but Bruce Winder says he doesn’t believe retailers would be “dumb enough” to use it.
That’s because the “blowback would be fierce and massive from consumers. It is happening a little bit in the U.S. There was a situation, at least there’s allegations of Instacart in the U.S. testing algorithmic pricing in a certain way, and that created a massive uproar in the U.S., from governments as well. But I don’t think any Canadian companies would do it, because it’s just too risky from a brand and reputation perspective.”
The Competition Bureau of Canada says as of last year, more than 60 companies in Canada were offering services that use algorithms and claim to help companies optimize pricing.
