Profiteering (business)

Profiteering is a term of ridicule for the act of making a profit by methods considered unethical. The term is most often used in time of emergency or unusual circumstance that causes a product to become acutely necessary. Rather than continue to make a fair profit on the product or service, the seller uses the opportunity to temporarily inflate its price. In some circumstances, the practice is illegal. For example, after natural disasters, it is illegal in most states and localities to use the disaster as an opportunity to inflate the price of building products related to emergency repairs.