Price Discrimination

Charging different buyers different prices for the same product where the difference is not explained by cost to serve. The economics textbook grades it by mechanism: individually negotiated prices, quantity-based pricing, and group-based pricing such as education discounts all qualify. The label carries a pejorative and legal charge inherited from physical-goods and reseller markets; in B2B software the practical exposure is relational rather than statutory, because enterprise buyers compare notes, and procurement teams arrive at negotiations carrying other customers' net prices. The important distinction is not whether prices differ across buyers (in negotiated B2B markets they always do) but whether the differences are architected or accidental. Architected differentiation is disclosed and structural: Customer Groups pay differently because they derive value differently, editions carry different capability sets at different price points, the value metric scales the bill with value received, and volume pricing ties price to commitment level. Accidental differentiation is variance nobody chose: two similar customers at materially different net prices for the same value because one had a better negotiator or a quarter-end rep.