New regulation will curb price discrimination through big data

According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's regulation on online tourism services, effective from Oct 1, online tourism operators are prohibited from using technology such as big data to violate tourists' legal rights and interests.

It is good to see the authorities trying to shield consumers, after noticing how online tourism service providers discriminate against them by billing them on the basis of their consumption record and preferences.

The public is not unfamiliar to some online tourism platforms' price discrimination against tourists taking advantage of big data. In recent years, the media have frequently exposed such scandals. Instead of providing better services to the customers, some online tourism providers collect and analyze information such as customers' consumption habits or tourists' preferences to charge them differently on the same products. This seriously violates the customers' rights and interests as well as the principle of fair dealing.

Online tourism service providers even try to attract new customers to expand their customer base, by offering them price incentives. But old customers become victims of this price discrimination trick, shelling out more money for the same services.

Some online platforms even charge customers on the basis of the mobile phones they use. Also, on the basis of their consumption record, some "rich" customers end up being charged higher than others. The use of advanced technology such as big data in pricing is new to both customers as well as the supervisory authorities. So, there is no regulation yet to curb such abuse of new technology.

Although major online tourism platforms deny having employed such price-discrimination tactics, many customers have been subjected to such unfair pricing practices but are unable to protect themselves in the absence of relevant regulation. But the new regulation, which prohibits such behavior, can prove to be an effective legal weapon for customers to protect themselves in the future.