The era of “Big Data” and predictive analytics has resulted in the ability to scan large amounts of data in order to extract knowledge and predictive meaning. Price discrimination has been described as the charging of different prices to various customers for the same goods or services (see Andrew Odlyzko, Privacy, Economics and Price Discrimination on the Internet, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882, page 2, last accessed 2013-10-08). Orbitz Worldwide Inc. is a travel company that provides an on-line service for the booking of hotel rooms and other travel arrangements. An article in the Wall Street Journal has highlighted the fact that in Orbitz has analysed its customer data and identified the fact that Apple Mac users generally spend approximately 30% more a night on hotels and other travel options than Windows users (see further http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882).
This has resulted in Orbitz showing different hotel offers to Mac and PC visitors, the former usually being offered a costlier alternative. While Orbitz mentioned that it is not showing the same room to different users for different prices, thereby highlighting that classic price discrimination is not being practiced, this is a technological advance that could be put to practice as the knowledge gained from the practice of predictive analytics becomed more and more valuable.
