The decision over rights only determines who pays whom. In a variety of contexts, consumers have indicated a willingness to sell their privacy. In return for selling this information, the consumer gets a discount on his or her purchases. This exchange of information is voluntary, so it makes both consumers and retailers better off. The same is often true with retailing on the web.
Online retailers are willing to pay handsomely for information about consumers.
Many retail sites on the web promise not to reveal customer information to third parties. In effect, these firms are charging customers for their privacy, since other firms sell customer information to third parties and can hence charge lower prices to consumers. Two preconditions of the Coase Theorem bear mentioning. First, for efficient trades to take place, all parties must have a clear understanding of who has which rights. Furthermore, consumers can simply take it for granted that any firm without obvious privacy credentials is selling consumer information to all takers.