Personal Prices

Cover of Personal Prices, Frontier Report No. 10

Frontier Report No. 10 · 17 pages · 12 sources

Is dynamic pricing fair?

People judge prices that change with time far more kindly than prices that differ between customers. Peak pricing can feel fair when the rules are clear, published and the same for everyone at a given time, as with Dubai's Salik tolls. Prices that differ between people for hidden reasons are strongly rejected.

What the report found

  1. Prices that move with time are now public policy in Dubai. Since 2025, Salik tolls cost Dh6 at peak hours and Dh4 off-peak, and parking in busy areas costs more at rush hour.
  2. People judge fairness, not just price. In a classic study, 82 per cent said raising the price of snow shovels after a snowstorm was unfair.
  3. Differences between people feel worst. Prices that differ by time are judged far fairer than prices that differ between customers buying at the same moment.
  4. Prices that move can help users too. Surge pricing helped match drivers to demand at busy times, so rides were available when riders most needed them.
  5. Personal pricing can pay. One study estimated that using shoppers' browsing data to set individual prices could raise a subscription service's profits by about 12 per cent, against under 1 per cent from demographics alone.

What is inside

  1. What is new
  2. What older research tells us
  3. What early studies suggest
  4. What nobody knows yet
  5. Questions worth watching

Plus Dubai's Salik toll schedule, signals to watch and a graded list of claims.

Who it is for

For retailers, platforms, transport and utility operators, regulators and anyone who has wondered whether someone else paid less.

How we work

Frontier Reports look at behaviour the textbooks have not yet caught up with. Every claim is graded Established, Emerging or Untested. Where researchers disagree, as they do on surge pricing and personal prices, both sides are set out before we say where we stand.

Cite this report

The Why We Project (2026) Personal prices: How people judge dynamic and individual pricing. Frontier Report No. 10. Dubai: Why We Tech Ltd. Available at: thewhyweproject.com