As the U.S. economy responds to prolonged COVID-19 disruptions, it is important to understand what factors affect the perceived fairness of pandemic-driven price increases. Methods: Participants read a vignette and rated how fair they found a pandemic-driven price increase. Versions vary (1) the source (hardware-store products or bus fare), (2) the magnitude of the price increase (6 percent or 18 percent), and (3) the tone of an initial description of COVID (positive or negative). Results: The price increase was perceived to be fairer when it involved the hardware store or when it was smaller. The relationship between fairness and magnitude was context-specific, as fairness perceptions were insensitive to the magnitude of the price increase in the bus scenario or when the initial description of COVID had a positive tone. Conclusion: Retailers and municipalities may face different fairness constraints as they consider pandemic-driven price increases. The tone of COVID information may affect price fairness through its impact on sensitivity to magnitude.As more components of economic life open up in the United States in the aftermath of widespread vaccination against COVID-19, pandemic-driven changes in economic conditions will inevitably affect price levels. As shown in the seminal work of Kahneman et al. (1986aKahneman et al. ( , 1986b and Bolton et al. (2003), contextdependent attitudes toward price increases can serve as a constraint that interferes with market-clearing price adjustments. Yet, while the perceived fairness of price increases has been widely studied, businesses and municipalities contemplating price increases have little empirical guidance to help them anticipate public sentiment toward higher prices coming out of a crisis as intense, impactful, and emotionally charged as the COVID-19 pandemic.The analysis presented here examines how the perceived fairness of COVID-19-driven price increases varies across different contexts. It uses different versions of a vignette that describes a price increase, which occurs as the economy opens up following the severe disruptions caused by the pandemic. To study context-dependence, three variables are systematically manipulated within the vignette while all other aspects remain equivalent. First, in light of the diverse types of economic domains that face potential price