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Profiteering
Profiteering is a pejorative term for the act of making a profit by methods considered unethical. Overview Business owners may be accused of profiteering when they raise prices during an emergency ( especially a war). The term is also applied to businesses that play on political corruption to obtain government contracts. Some types of profiteering are illegal, such as price fixing syndicates, for example on fuel subsidies (see '' British Airways price-fixing allegations''), and other anti-competitive behaviour. Some are restricted by industry codes of conduct, e.g. aggressive marketing of products in the Third World such as baby milk (see '' Nestlé boycott''). Types of profiteering *Price fixing *Price gouging *War profiteering Laws Profiteering is illegal in several countries, including but not limited to: *UK: Chapter 1 of the Competition Act 1998 *Germany§ 291 StGB(Criminal Code) – up to 10 years' jail maximum penalty *Austria§ 154 StGB– up to 5 years' jail maximum p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Profiteering
A war profiteer is any person or organization that derives unreasonable profit (economics), profit from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term typically carries strong negative connotations. General profiteering (business), profiteering, making a profit criticized as excessive or unreasonable, also occurs in peacetime. An example of war profiteers were the shoddy millionaires, "shoddy" millionaires who allegedly sold recycled wool and cardboard shoes to soldiers during the American Civil War. Some have argued that major modern defense conglomerates like Lockheed Martin, Mitsubishi, Boeing, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and RTX Corporation fit the description in the post-9/11 era. This argument is based in the military-industrial complex, political influence of the arms industry, defense industry, for example in 2010 the defense industry spent $144 million on lobbying and donated over $22.6 million to congressional candidates, as well as large p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rent Seeking
Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating the social or political environment without creating new wealth. Rent-seeking activities have negative effects on the rest of society. They result in reduced economic efficiency through misallocation of resources, stifled competition, reduced wealth creation, lost government revenue, heightened income inequality, heightened debt levels, risk of growing corruption and cronyism, decreased public trust in institutions, and potential national decline. Successful capture of regulatory agencies (if any) to gain a coercive monopoly can result in advantages for rent-seekers in a market while imposing disadvantages on their uncorrupt competitors. This is one of many possible forms of rent-seeking behavior. Theory The term "rent", in the narrow sense of land rent, was coined by the British 19th-century economist David Ricardo, but rent-seeking only became the subject of durable interest among economists and po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Price Gouging
Price gouging is the practice of increasing the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair by some. This commonly applies to price increases of basic necessities after natural disasters. Usually, this event occurs after a demand or supply shock. The term can also be used to refer to profits obtained by practices inconsistent with a competitive free market, or to windfall profits. In some jurisdictions of the United States during civil emergencies, price gouging is a specific crime. Price gouging is considered by some to be exploitative and unethical and by others as a pejorative term for the simple result of supply and demand. Price gouging is similar to profiteering but can be distinguished by being short-term and localized and by being restricted to essentials such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and equipment needed to preserve life and property. In jurisdictions where there is no such crime, the term may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pejorative
A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a term is regarded as pejorative in some social or ethnic groups but not in others or may be originally pejorative but later adopt a non-pejorative sense (or vice versa) in some or all contexts. Etymology The word ''pejorative'' is derived from a Late Latin past participle stem of ', meaning "to make worse", from ' "worse". Pejoration and melioration In historical linguistics, the process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form of semantic drift known as pejoration. An example of pejoration is the shift in meaning of the word '' silly'' from meaning that a person was happy and fortunate to meaning that they are foolish and unsophisticated. The process of pejoration can repeat itself around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Price Fixing Cases
This is a partial list of notable price fixing and bid rigging cases. Australia Airlines The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken several airlines to the Federal Court of Australia seeking penalties for alleged price fixing contraventions. As of 2011, the ACCC's activities are: Qantas The ACCC instituted proceedings against Qantas seeking penalties for alleged price fixing contraventions relating to fuel surcharges applied to international carriage of air cargo between 2002 and early 2006.ACCC launches its first cases in alleged air freight cartel, Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, 28 October 2008 Retrieved 18 May 2011 The conduct concerned collusion be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Usury
Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in excess of the maximum rate that is allowed by law. A loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors defined by the laws of a state. Someone who practices usury can be called a ''usurer'', but in modern colloquial English may be called a ''loan shark''. In many historical societies including ancient Christian, Jewish, and Islamic societies, usury meant the charging of interest of any kind, and was considered wrong, or was made illegal. During the Sutra period in India (7th to 2nd centuries BC) there were laws prohibiting the highest castes from practicing usury. Similar condemnations are found in religious texts from Buddhism, Judaism ('' ribbit'' in Hebrew), Christianity, and Islam (''rib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ticket Scalping
Ticket resale (also known as ticket scalping or ticket touting when done for profit) is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of the tickets. Tickets sold through secondary sources may be sold for less or more than their face value depending on demand, which tends to vary as the event date approaches. When the supply of tickets for a given event available through authorized ticket sellers is depleted, the event is considered "sold out," generally increasing the market value for any tickets on offer through secondary sellers. Ticket resale is common in both sporting and musical events. Ticket resale is a form of arbitrage that arises when the number demanded at the sale price exceeds the number supplied (that is, when event organizers charge less than the equilibrium prices for the tickets). During the 19th century, the term ''scalper'' was appl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supracompetitive Pricing
Supracompetitive pricing is pricing above what can be sustained in a competitive market. This may be indicative of a business that has a unique legal or competitive advantage or of anti-competitive behavior that has driven competition from the market. An example of a unique legal advantage would be a drug company that is the first to discover and successfully manufacture a medication to treat a certain disease. Initially, as the only market player, the drug company may be able to charge supra competitive prices until other companies catch up. In this case, the regulatory hurdle for drug approval may prove a substantial barrier to new competition. However, other companies may not be able to enter the market due to another barrier to entry, intellectual property (IP) rights. The drug company may have a patent on the new formulation, barring competitors until the patent expires unless they can license rights from the IP owner. An example of a competitive advantage may be a large co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Product Sabotage
In marketing and retail, product sabotage is a practice used to encourage the customer to purchase a more profitable product or service as opposed to cheaper alternatives. It is also the practice where a company attempts to aim different prices at different types of customer. There are several methods used in achieving this: Cheap packaging This method is commonly used in supermarkets, where the cheapest products are packaged in cheap and basic packaging. These products are normally displayed alongside the more attractively packaged and expensive items, in an attempt to persuade customers to buy the more expensive alternative instead. For example, the Tesco supermarket chain sells a "value" range of products in garish (red, blue, and white) packaging to make them appear unappealing and inferior to their regular brand. Omitting products from menus Not promoting cheaper alternatives. An example of this method is coffee companies who hide or downplay cheaper drinks in the hope that c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Business Ethics
Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. These ethics originate from individuals, organizational statements or the legal system. These norms, values, ethical, and unethical practices are the principles that guide a business. Business ethics refers to contemporary organizational standards, principles, sets of values and norms that govern the actions and behavior of an individual in the business organization. Business ethics have two dimensions, normative business ethics or descriptive business ethics. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business behavior employ descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business et ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoarding (economics)
Hoarding in economics refers to the concept of purchasing and storing a large amount of a particular product, creating scarcity of that product, and ultimately driving the price of that product up. Commonly hoarded products include assets such as money, gold and Security (finance), public securities, as well as vital goods such as fuel and medicine. Consumers are primarily hoarding resources so that they can maintain their current consumption rate in the event of a shortage (Scarcity (social psychology), real or perceived). Hoarding resources can prevent or slow products or Commodity, commodities from traveling through the economy. Subsequently, this may cause the product or commodity to become scarce, causing the value of the resource to rise. A common intention of economic hoarding is to generate a profit by selling the product once the price has increased. Hence, economic Speculation#:~:text=Speculators play one of four,investors who seek profit through, speculators tend to hoar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
