PI4.8 Predatory Pricing. Prohibitions against predatory pricing stem from big business conspiracy theories popularized in the late nineteenth century by journalists such as Ida Tarbell, author of an influential book titled History of the Standard Oil Company. In that book, Tarbell condemned Standard Oil's allegedly predatory price-cutting. Business historians assert that Tarbell vilified John D. Rockefeller because of personal reasons, and not only because of an interest in reshaping public policy. Standard Oil's low prices had driven the employer of Tarbell's brother, the Pure Oil Company, out of the petroleum-refining business.