Price gouging
Etymology
“Gouge” originally meant to dig out with a chisel-like tool (from Late Latin “gubia”), and by 19th-century American usage came to mean cheating or extorting. “Price gouging” became a legal and political term as many U.S. states criminalized steep post-disaster price hikes.
noun phrase · /prise GOW-jing/
Sharply raising prices on essential goods to exploit a sudden spike in demand, often during an emergency.
What it names
The practice — and the moral accusation — of charging desperate buyers far above the normal price when they have no alternative.
Example
After the hurricane, sellers charging fifty dollars for a case of water were accused of price gouging.
Related idea
Price gouging is the moral and legal charge against exploitative pricing; economists describe the same mechanism neutrally as price elasticity, the sensitivity of demand to price — which for essentials is very low.