[smoyer]

If you're going to call it "price-gouging", let's at least admit it's a natural part of business. Take a look at hotel rates when there's a near-by convention, air-line ticket prices over the Christmas holidays or even the prices quoted by corporate sales at businesses like Cisco, Oracle, etc.

There's not a law that says you have to charge everyone the same rate - just that you can't base it on certain types of discrimination.

Note: I'm okay with calling all those practices "price-gouging".

[leephillips]

It's not my term, it's defined by the statutes of many states, including NY: http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/nycode/GBS/26/396-r

The idea is that jacking up prices to take advantage of adverse conditions or emergencies is not the same as normal supply-and-demand based pricing in response to seasonal variations, etc. I don't know if Uber's practice fits the definition in the statute or if they're being investigated for it.

[smoyer]

Uber has stated that their pricing is based on the number of people requesting rides (within some time slot if I remember correctly). So a snow storm might be deemed a natural disaster, but it might also lead to more people requesting rides (also triggering the price increases).

Yes, if there's not an increased demand during that snow-storm but they're caught with 5X prices, I think they'll be in trouble under those "price-gouging" laws.