The allegations reveal the most insidious point wild capitalism has reached in the digital age: Companies are pricing products in seconds not based on costs or market supply/demand, but directly based on **"your current desperation and vulnerabilities"** via artificial intelligence.
1. How Does the Algorithm Read Your Vulnerabilities?
In the past, dynamic pricing relied on a simple supply-and-demand rule, like "if there are only 5 seats left on a plane, the price goes up." However, today's AI algorithms conduct massive data mining to predict a customer's "Willingness to Pay."
The Price of Battery Level and Urgency
According to the Competition Authority's preliminary report, algorithms can perceive your phone battery being under 10% as a "state of urgency (panic)" and increase the price of a taxi or ticket by 20%. The brand of phone you use (is it an expensive model?), how many times you've searched the same route in the last hour, your location (are you in a wealthy neighborhood?), and even the hesitant movements of your mouse cursor on the screen are analyzed instantly to present you with a personalized "ceiling price."
2. Free Market or Algorithmic Exploitation of the Consumer?
The companies under investigation defend the practice as a completely legal "Free Market" dynamic, arguing that they manage discounts and loyalty programs with the same algorithms. According to the companies, this is simply the digitized version of a shopkeeper looking at a customer's attire and quoting a price accordingly.
Consumer associations, however, emphasize that the incident is "Algorithmic Discrimination." Selling the same service to different citizens at exorbitant prices using profile information obtained by violating data privacy (KVKK/GDPR) is deemed fundamentally contrary to equal opportunity and transparent trade principles.
3. The Global Context: Can Algorithms Disrupt Justice?
This investigation concerns not only Turkey but the entire global e-commerce ecosystem. The European Union's new Digital Services Act (DSA) and AI Act require clear notification to the consumer when prices are determined algorithmically. This investigation in Turkey will set a worldwide precedent on whether "secretly profiling the consumer to inflate prices" constitutes a competition violation (unfair commercial practice).
Expert Opinion: Burhan Doğuş Ayparlar
The Dynamic Pricing investigation launched by the Competition Authority on August 28 is proof that the law must audit not only inter-company monopolization but also the asymmetric power war between 'Machine and Consumer'. The free-market economy relies on the assumption that the buyer and seller negotiate in a transparent market under equal information conditions.
However, we cannot speak of equality in a scenario where the seller is an Artificial Intelligence. The algorithm knows your bank statements, browser history, and even your stress level at that moment; you, on the other hand, cannot see how it inflates the price in the background. This is not trade; it is a 'Psychological Extortion' operation conducted over data. The law can allow companies to price their products based on demand intensity (Peak Pricing), but it must immediately ban the algorithmic exploitation of the consumer's personal vulnerabilities (low battery, being located at a hospital, etc.) to extract personalized exorbitant prices, classifying it as an 'Unfair Commercial Practice' and a 'Privacy Violation'. The tag price must be transparent for everyone, and discounts must be based on objective loyalty criteria, not algorithmic manipulation.
