price gouging

price gouging (usually uncountable, plural price gougings)

1. (business, economics) The act of or an instance of charging services or pricing goods at unreasonably high prices.

   The farmers aren't really guilty of price gouging, but they are trying to recoup some of their losses from the flooding earlier this spring.

price gouging

1. present participle and gerund of price gouge

• How one defines reasonable relies on the principles of market forces (factors that the market will bear), but the gouging concept recognizes egregious exceptions as being exploitative, with a polar example being the needless exploitation of people's basic needs (such as food, potable water, and medicines) during a natural disaster.