"The day after President Donald Trump announced his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs, pricing guru Craig Zawada held an urgent summit for his clients. The global economy was roiling with anxiety, and stocks were in a tailspin, but Zawada had a more hopeful message to impart: For the businesses deploying his company’s “smart pricing” software, this was a rare opportunity.
“There is perhaps more of a window to make changes to your pricing than there has been before,” Zawada said. Consumers, he explained, were bracing themselves for tariff sticker shock: “Customers expect change.”
“Now,” he said, “is the time to take advantage.”
Zawada works for PROS Holdings, a company that provides software services helping companies price their products, tailored in particular to airlines. He’s part of a cottage industry of “pricing optimization” consultants who, using lessons learned from pandemic price increases, are advising companies across industries on how to hike prices in response to tariffs or even just the threat of tariffs — and then keep them high.
Republican Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Andrew Ferguson, the nation’s top antitrust cop, has been warning companies that enforcers are prepared to take action against tariff profiteering. Yet he has effectively given the consultant class a “green light,” as one former FTC official told The Lever, by rolling back an inquiry scrutinizing their practices."
https://www.levernews.com/how-trump-is-helping-price-gougers-exploit-his-tariffs/