Several recent court cases contend that the pricing algorithms used by hotels and multifamily landlords pose antitrust risks. Federal regulators have intervened to argue that these systems can lead to unintended collusion and antitrust violations, even without explicit agreements among the parties. Businesses can reduce the risk of collusion with algorithms that rely on decentralized ' as opposed to centralized ' decision-making and use only public, not private, data. For decades, hotels, airlines, casinos, and other companies have used revenue management systems to help them set prices, maximize revenues, and gain competitive advantage. Now, in a series of legal cases, plaintiffs have argued that some of those systems' pricing algorithms could be used to facilitate illegal price-fixing in violation of federal antitrust law. Typically, collusion over pricing requires explicit coordination among competitors, the kind one might imagine occurring in the stereotypical smoke-filled room. What makes the recent lawsuits worth paying attention to is the idea, expressed by federal regulators, that the use of pricing algorithms can lead to collusion without such overt agreements ' and even if companies didn't intend to collude. If this view of collusion prevails, it could pave the way for even more antitrust lawsuits over algorithmic pricing....

Surveillance pricing has dominated headlines recently. Delta Air Lines' announcement that it will use artificial intelligence to set individualized ticket prices has led to widespread concerns about companies using personal data to charge different prices for identical products. As The New York Times reported, this practice involves companies tracking everything from your hotel bookings to your browsing history to determine what you're willing to pay. The reaction has been swift. Democratic lawmakers have responded with outrage, with Texas Rep. Greg Casar introducing legislation to ban the practice. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's new chair of the Federal Trade Commission has shut down public comment on the issue, signaling that the regulatory pendulum may swing away from oversight entirely. What's missing in this political back-and-forth is a deeper look at the economics. As a business school professor who researches pricing strategy, I think the debate misses important nuances. Opponents of surveillance pricing overlook some potential benefits that could make markets both more efficient and, counterintuitively, more equitable....

On the surface, it's hard to argue with those numbers. If we're comparing per-game viewership, it is clear the numbers don't line up. NWSL average viewership per game is higher than that of the MLS, yet the MLS is making more than 4x as much as the NWSL in broadcast deals. When Apple signed its $2.5 billion, 10-year deal with MLS, it wasn't simply buying eyeballs ' it was strategically acquiring content IP. The deal secured global exclusivity, in-house production control, a subscription engine (MLS Season Pass), and category ownership within its platform. By contrast, the NWSL's $60 million per year deal ' split across CBS, Prime Video, ESPN and ION ' is monumental for a 12-year-old league. But it's structured around traditional advertising, linear windows and shared production responsibilities. With fewer monetizable layers, the resulting deal was a lower headline number. That $60 million per year figure includes production costs, marketing and value-in-kind contributions. Industry insiders estimate the actual cash to the league is closer to $35 million or $40 million....

Three and a half years earlier, New York state legislators had passed a law requiring the MTA to release 'easily accessible, understandable, and usable' data to the public; by January 2022, MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber officially announced the new team's formation. Meanwhile, New York City's controversial congestion pricing program, which tolls cars entering Manhattan's busiest streets, officially kicked off in 2019 but was chugging through a lengthy setup process, with the transit agency and state fighting lawsuits, politicians, and vocal naysayers along the way. So when the program finally started in January, the MTA's data and analytics team had prepared. They could see the moment the tolling started right in the spreadsheets. 'The day that it turned on, one field changed from 'no revenue collection' to 'revenue,'' says Andy Kuziemko, the deputy chief of the data and analytics team. A few days later, the team was pumping out data on vehicle entries into the zone in 10-minute increments, and posting the data on its website, so that New Yorkers themselves could decide whether the congestion program was actually reducing traffic on city streets. The agency has been doing it since. You'yes, you'can view and download the MTA's data right here....