price gouging

Noun

 * 1)  The act of or an instance of charging services or pricing goods at unreasonably high prices.
 * The farmers aren't really guilty of price gouging, but they are trying to recoup some of their losses from the flooding earlier this spring.

Usage notes
How to define what is reasonable relies on principles of market forces (what the market will bear), but the gouging concept recognizes egregious exceptions as being exploitative, with a polar example being the needless exploitation of people's basic needs (such as food, potable water, and medicines) during a natural disaster.