The Regulation of Personalised Pricing in the Digital Era

Abstract

The paper reviews the different legal tools to regulate the personalised pricing and provide some policy recommendations in that regard. Section 1 provides a definition of the personalsied prices and analyses to which extend firms are currently personalising their practices. Section 2 deals with the impacts of personalised pricing on firms’ profits and economic welfare. Section 3 reviews and compares the different legal tools which regulate at the EU level the personalised pricing: consumer protection, data protection, competition policy and anti-discrimination rules. Finally section 4 concludes with policy recommendations to improve the relevance and the effectiveness of those legal tools.

Keywords: Personalised Pricing, Big Data, EU Regulation, Consumer Protection, Data Protection, Antitrust

JEL Classification: K21, K42, L40