rebate, retroactive refund or credit given to a buyer after he has paid the full list price for a product or for a service such as transportation. Rebating was a common pricing tactic during the 19th century and was often used by large industrialists to preserve or extend their power by undercutting competition. Important customers were granted refunds in secret so that less influential buyers would know nothing of them. Rebates were often used by the 19th-century railroad industry as a means of price discrimination. The motive for rebating among railroad firms lay in their chronically underutilized capacity; secret rebates seemed a small price to pay for the capture of large freight orders. Rebating was so universally practiced by American and European railroad firms that published tariffs were applied only to shippers who were unsophisticated enough to pay them without bargaining for a refund. In U.S. history the rebates received by the Standard Oil Company were a major factor in that company’s attainment of a monopolistic position in the oil industry.
On the other hand, some rebates have been used as justifiable incentives to stimulate desirable action on the part of the customers. For example, real estate firms in Europe gave rebates to buyers to encourage land improvements that would increase the value of adjoining unsold land. So-called deferred, or exclusive patronage, rebates are popular for large vendors of perishables, of certain services, and of consumer durable goods. To receive a rebate the purchaser must agree to buy certain goods or services exclusively from a particular vendor for a fixed period, usually ranging from 6 to 12 months. Such rebates can be justified on economic grounds if they are open to all customers and if they result in lower production costs.
