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A monopoly is not required. It works fine as long as the price differential is low enough that the user decides it is not worth the effort to investigate alternatives.

Variable pricing is applied all the time in all sorts of businesses. It even happens when there is a sticker price.

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>It works fine as long as the price differential is low enough

Then it wouldn't really be price gouging.

you missed the last chunk of that sentence: " that the user decides it is not worth the effort to investigate alternatives.". If I don't have a Lyft account and have only ever used Uber, I may not want to go through the hassle of downloading the app, registering, having Lyft text me, etc etc.

It's still not price gouging. Your premise is that the price difference is not low enough to bother checking, which means there is no price gouging.

Of course it is not. You can come up with thousands of situations in which you can increase your price without having a monopoly, just that they don't explain anything meaningful.

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