Question:
How does overcharging work on an online market place where the item is sold at a range of prices, not one set price? Is it mutar to charge at the highest price of the range, and even up to 16% above the highest price? If even the lowest of the range of these prices is 16% higher then what they sell for at stores is it mutar to sell it at that rate?
Last question, if two different items have a range of pricing, but if you bundle the items and sell them together you can sell each item for more than 16% of when the items are sold individually is that mutar? This seems to be the way the market works in general, that when you bundle like items together you can get more for it even though if each individual item were bought separately it would be altogether cheaper. Would it matter if I am the only person selling this bundle vs if other people are selling it as well for the more expensive price.
Answer:
It is beautiful to get questions from people who want to be honest in their business!
The online market should be similar to the regular market, where there is a normal range of what a specific item sells for, (unless the item naturally doesn’t have a specific defined value). You can charge the highest price of what is indeed considered the normal accepted range, even if that price is 16% higher than the lowest price, as long as it is within the norm of the going price. For example if the going price for a certain vegetable is between 15- 20 cents, you can charge 20 cents even though it is more than 16% above the lowest price. Additionally, the issue of onaah is to overcharge, even 1%, the idea o 16% is not that it is permitted until then, but until 16% we don’t say that the sale has been invalidated.
Regarding bundling items, you are allowed to charge more for the bundle then the sum total of the individual items, because the service and value of the bundle is more. It must be noted however that even the added value of the bundle has a normal limit.
Best wishes and Hashem should send you an abundance of honest parnassa.
Sources:
CH:M 227-6,
