Confusopoly (aka Dilbert's confusopoly) is confusing marketing designed to prevent the buyer from making informed decisions. The term was invented by Scott Adams in his comic strip Dilbert. Adams defined a confusopoly as "a group of companies with similar products who intentionally confuse customers instead of competing on price".[1] For example, similar items like mobile phones are advertised at various price plans according to different combinations of available minutes, text messaging capabilities and other services, thus making these offers practically incomparable when it could be easy to price similar units of usage to allow informed comparisons. The term confusopoly also applies because confusion within the targeted consumer group is purposefully maintained, so choices are based on emotional factors.
The term has been adopted by economists. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray, championing meaningful regulation for the financial industry, used the term confusopoly to refer to large financial institutions (4'04"4'26"):
The following example makes it easier to understand the term: similar items, such as cell phones, are advertised in various price plans according to different combinations of available minutes, text messaging features and other services, making these offers virtually incomparable when it could be easy to price similar units of use to allow informed comparisons. In this example, the term confusopoly applies because confusion within the target consumer group is purposely maintained, so that choices are based on emotional factors.