Price Checking in Jewish Law

I am considering starting an online business and want to know if I may enter various retail stores to gather information on pricing for the purpose of price comparison and competitive analysis?

Thank you for your question.

This is an important subject and one that can be very applicable to many types of cases, such as trying on clothing just to check the size in order to buy it online for cheaper, etc. Therefore, it's important to understand this halacha, which is actually a halacha mid'oraisa.

Introduction to the prohibition called: Ona’ah.

The Mishnah in Mesechet Bava Metzia writes as follows:

תלמוד בבלי מסכת בבא מציעא דף נח עמוד ב

משנה. כשם שאונאה במקח וממכר כך אונאה בדברים. לא יאמר לו בכמה חפץ זה והוא אינו רוצה ליקח. אם היה בעל תשובה לא יאמר לו זכור מעשיך הראשונים,

Mishnah: Just as there is ona’ah (wronging) through pricing in buying and selling, so too there is ona’ah (wronging) through words. One should not ask, 'How much is this item?' if he does not wish to buy it. If he is a Ba’al Teshuvah, one should not say to him, 'Remember your former deeds’…

We see that the Mishnah connects two halachot that seem not to have any connection: the halacha of not entering a shop to inquire about prices if you don’t intend to buy, and second, not to embarrass a ba'al teshuvah about his past deeds. And the Rishonim ask, what is the connection?

The Meiri explains that when a person enters a shop and inquires about a certain product without the intention to buy it, he will then leave the shop and cause the seller anguish since the seller will think that it is because his products are inferior or too expensive, and he won't realize that the reason the man left was not because of the inferiority of his product but because he wasn’t interested in buying the product at all.

So we see, according to this explanation, that the two halachot are actually very much the same, and they are about not upsetting another person.

Price checking:

So let's see about the halacha regarding checking out prices. Based on the explanation above, we will then have a better understanding of the different nuances of this halacha.

The Shulchan Aruch writes as follows:

שולחן ערוך חושן משפט הלכות אונאה ומקח טעות סימן רכח

כיצד הוא אונאת דברים, לא יאמר: בכמה אתה רוצה ליתן חפץ זה, והוא אינו רוצה לקנותו.

Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat, Laws of Ona'ah and Deceptive Practices, Siman 228:

How is Ono’at Devarim (verbal wronging) defined? One should not say: 'How much are you willing to sell this item for?' if he does not intend to buy it….

Since, as we explained, this is because it would cause the seller to be upset, therefore, this halacha would only apply if it is the owner himself selling the product. If, however, it is a worker who was hired by the owner to sell the product, since it would not cause him to be upset if you don’t end up buying, it would then be permitted to ask about the price.

However, it is important to note two conditions to this leniency:

1. One may not take up too much of the worker's time, anything that the owner would not mind.

2. When you inquire, it should not be at the expense of the shoppers who are interested in buying.

So, the rule is that it may be done, only in the amount of time that one would think that the owner would not mind.

Looking around for the cheapest price:

Someone who is shopping around to find the cheapest price would have to tell this to the owner of the shop before he starts inquiring about the prices. However, if it is not the owner that is selling, then it would be permitted as explained above.

Surveying for competitive analysis.

Someone who is planning to open a shop or to sell a certain product at home and wants to check out the prices in his competitor's shops, etc., like in your case, this would be prohibited even if one is inquiring by the worker, since we can assume that the owner would not want him to help a competitor.

However, if one only walks into the shop to look around and see the prices without asking then it would be permitted even in this case.

Wishing you much success.

Talmud Bavli, Mesechet Bava Metzia, daf 58b

Meiri Ibid

Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat, Siman 228