A Price Difference Is Not Yet an Explanation

A Price Difference Is Not Yet an Explanation

A price difference is an observation. It becomes an explanation only when evidence connects the outcome to an assignment rule, input, or cause.

That distinction protects both sides of a pricing investigation. It prevents a company from dismissing a documented difference as meaningless, and it prevents a reporter from turning an unexplained output into a claim about surveillance, discrimination, or intent.

The useful sequence is observation, controlled comparison, replication, system evidence, and then causal or legal interpretation.