Price gouging is a pejorative term referring to when a seller spikes the prices of
goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair, and is considered exploitative, potentially to an unethical extent. Usually this event occurs after a demand or supply shock: common examples include price increases of basic necessities after
hurricanes or other
natural disasters. In precise, legal usage, it is the name of a crime that applies in some jurisdictions of the
United States during civil emergencies. In less precise usage, it can refer either to prices obtained by practices inconsistent with a competitive
free market, or to
windfall profits. In the former
Soviet Union, it was simply included under the single definition of
speculation.