1
general::
Phrase(s): highway robbery
outrageous overpricing; a bill that is much higher than normally acceptable but must be paid. (As if one had been accosted and robbed on the open road or in broad daylight.) • Four thousand dollars! That’s highway robbery for one piece of furniture! • I won’t pay it! It’s highway robbery!
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
The exaction of an exorbitantly high price or fee. For example, You paid ten dollars for that meat? That's highway robbery. This term, used figuratively since the late 1800s, alludes to literal robbery of travelers on or near a public road.
American Heritage Idioms