mǎi

买

tóng yàng

同样

shāng pǐn

商品

jià gé

价格

què

却

bù tóng

不同

yǐn fā

引发

guān zhù

关注

Recently, many people have found that when shopping online, ordering food delivery, or booking hotels, the final price can be different even for exactly the same product when viewed on different phones.

This phenomenon has attracted widespread attention.

An investigation found that many online platforms have started playing a new “coupon game.”

In the past, platforms might have directly shown higher prices to existing users. Now, although the original price of a product appears to be the same, platforms give different people coupons worth different amounts.

New users or accounts that are not used often can usually get large coupons, while frequent long-term users or premium members receive fewer discounts and have to pay more for the same things.

Besides food delivery, this situation also often occurs on hotel-booking and ride-hailing apps.

Sometimes, if a user looks at the same room several times within a short period, the price immediately goes up.

When consumers question this, customer service staff on many platforms only explain that discounts are given out “randomly by the system.”

Experts say that using algorithms to set different prices for different people actually violates consumers’ legal rights.

Although relevant laws clearly prohibit this practice, platforms’ pricing methods are very complex, making it difficult for consumers to detect it and protect their rights.

Experts suggest that major online platforms should proactively disclose their pricing and discount rules and create a fair and transparent environment so that people can shop with confidence.