Many businesses offer membership cards to clients, promising that they will enjoy discounts, and the more they use the cards, the bigger the discounts will be. This is a common practice to attract and retain regular customers. By providing quality products or services at reasonable prices, businesses can indeed achieve this goal.

However, in recent years, consumers trying to book flights or hotels on certain websites have discovered that prices were actually higher for frequent users than for newcomers. They found that they could pay less by opening up a new account rather than using an old one. Unfortunately, these businesses are using information gathered through big data on clients' preferences and purchasing habits to take advantage of them, which amounts to targeted price discrimination.

There have been numerous cases of overcharging based on big data on various shopping platforms in recent years. However, since it's difficult to collect sufficient evidence to accuse these businesses, only a small number of consumers have chosen to take them on. Thus, big data, which is supposed to benefit the public, is helping some businesses cheat consumers.

Big data itself is not a bad thing, especially since it is playing an increasingly important role in social life and economic growth. It can serve as a basic resource and tool. But since it is being used to overcharge frequent clients, the public has expressed anger. It's a myopic behavior that will eventually drive away customers. Instead, big data should be used to improve businesses' services and products by strengthening supervision and punishment so that this new technology can play its due role in Internet commerce.

Digging out purchase habits

Yang Zhaokui (Workers' Daily): In recent years, there have been frequent cases of businesses taking advantage of regular clients using big data. For the most part, businesses deny the accusation. They usually claim that they offer discounts or favorable prices to newcomers.

It's not easy for regular clients to find out whether they are paying more for a commodity than newcomers and even more difficult to collect evidence. There must be explicit laws and regulations to judge whether regular clients have been overcharged.

This shameless act is a commercial trick based on personal information acquired through big data. Scratch the surface and you'll find that some businesses are abusing clients' personal information, breaching their right to fair trade.

Yan Yiling (www.cnhubei.com): Once regular clients realize that they are being overcharged, they will not accept it. It's true that by taking advantage of big data personal information, businesses can make more profits. But consumers are not fools. Big data is a result of rapid Internet development. It helps expand businesses and improve services, but it should never be used as a tool to overcharge regular clients. Businesses should make better use of big data, instead of using it to play tricks on regular clients. Consumers will not tolerate these illegalities and these businesses will eventually pay a big price if they keep being so short-sighted.

Chu Xudong (www.rednet.cn): A growing number of businesses are using big data as information and profit sources. Big data covers clients' personal information, such as their purchasing habits and preferences. Every consumer is transparent the moment they jump on the Internet.

If properly used, big data can help to raise productivity and efficiency in daily life, but if not, it can be used to make profits by impairing consumers' rights. The merits of big data cannot be denied just because it is being abused by some businesses. After all, big data is playing an unrivaled role in promoting economic growth and improving social efficiency.

It's urgent to stop the misuse of big data by stepping up supervision. Market and network supervisory authorities need to join hands in this effort. The illegal use of big data should be severely punished. Advanced technology should be more widely used to supervise big data use.

More regulations needed

Shi Hongju (www.southcn.com): Usually, if clients have VIP cards for a store, they will enjoy more conveniences and discounts than ordinary customers. But if stores overcharge regular clients and VIP card holders, consumers will ultimately reject these businesses.

Usually, regular clients buy a product or service that is clearly priced on online shops through various apps. They think that they have enjoyed a discount. This kind of psychology speeds up their decision to buy something. If they know that newcomers can enjoy bigger discounts, they will probably not use their old accounts to order commodities. Thus, shops manage to overcharge regular clients through information asymmetry.

Even worse, these businesses are usually the ones with an edge in technology and information acquiring, so they can easily overcharge regular clients as much as they want. In contrast, consumers know nothing about these enterprises and most don't even realize they have been overcharged. They can discover these tricks by using different accounts. However, people's time and energy are limited, so they can't spend too much time tracing the prices of these products. If consumers are forced to do this some day, Internet commerce will cease to exist.

To curb the abuse of big data, we can't expect consumers to win the battle by themselves. The intervention of relevant authorities is necessary. A transparent, fair and honest market environment is important in the Internet era to prevent consumers from being consumed by big data.

Hu Hongsen (Beijing Daily): It's all right for businesses to employ certain methods to make big money, but to charge regular clients more than newcomers by taking advantage of information collected through big data analysis is encroaching on regular clients' rights as well as their trust in these businesses. The Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests stipulates that consumers have the right to know the truth about the commodities and services they buy. Thus, to overcharge regular clients is not only breaching the principle of fairness and sincerity, but also relevant laws. In the long run, it's the businesses that will suffer most.

Rather than taking advantage of big data to gouge prices, it would be wiser for businesses to spend more time improving products and services in order to retain regular clients and attract new customers.

To curb this kind of offense, it is necessary to expose these businesses to the public as a punishment and deterrence. At the same time, more efforts are needed to protect consumers' individual information on their purchasing preferences and habits and prevent businesses from abusing clients' personal information.

Meanwhile, consumers can compare similar commodities sold by different shops and choose the best and most affordable ones. They should also develop the sense of protecting their personal information. Once they discover that their information is being used for unscrupulous purposes, they need to use the law to safeguard their legitimate rights.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

Comments to dingying@bjreview.com