McDonald's sued for allegedly using AI tool to determine pricing for franchises
theguardian.com11 points by Brajeshwar 2 days ago
11 points by Brajeshwar 2 days ago
After some of the revelations of how Uber will use differential pricing: if your phone battery is low, the driver accepts rides too quickly, etc I thought it a given that all companies were going to try this personalized pricing scheme. The reason they are potentially in trouble here is for the operator data sharing.
One would expect food (and everything else) to cost more in Manhattan vs Brooklyn, no? It is annoying when stores don't display prices or change prices depending on the time of the day ("more $ for lemonade when it is hot" style) but comparing prices across zip codes seems like a stretch?
Yes, I expect restaurant chain prices to vary based on the cost of renting the real estate and local labor costs (or a captive audience like an airport terminal). Per location pricing is fine with me, I dislike the idea of targeted pricing per customer.
Allowing people to trade their personal data for discounts like McDonalds does now is also fine by me, I just pay the full price and don’t use the app if I stop there.