v12n3: Peterson on Finestone and Kingston on Price Gouging
Posted: October 9, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
“For Crisis Prices and Against Anti-Price Gouging Statutes,” by Eric Peterson
A COMMENTARY ON Finestone, K. and E. Kingston (2022), “Crisis Prices: The Ethics of Market Controls During a Global Pandemic,” Bus Ethics Q 32(1): 1240 https://doi.org/10.1017/beq.2021.15
Finestone and Kingston (2022) argue that global persistent crises reveal both a new justification for price gouging as well as the need for the creation and regulation of a new category of goods—reserved goods. While I accept the new justification for price gouging, I raise concerns over the creation and regulation of a new category of goods. In particular, I argue that there are conceptual problems with the current distinction of goods – luxury versus essential – so often used in the price gouging literature. Further, I argue that these problems plague the new category of goods as well.
To download the full PDF, click here: Peterson on Finestone and Kingston
Eric Peterson is an Assistant Professor of practice in business ethics at the Dolan School of Business of Fairfield University. He is also an affiliate faculty member at the Waide Center for Applied Ethics at Fairfield University. He is interested in too many things. These include business ethics, imagination, and philosophy of religion.
Business Ethics Journal Review 