COVID-19 Amazon suspends 3,900 sellers for coronavirus-related price gouging
Amazon has booted nearly 4,000 sellers for what the ecommerce company called “seeking to profit off the COVID-19 crisis.” More than half a million offers were pulled from the biggest U.S. online marketplace and more than 3,900 accounts suspended for violating Amazon’s fair pricing policies, the retailer said.
“Amazon strictly prohibits sellers from exploiting an emergency by charging excessively high prices on products and shipping,” the company said Monday in a blog post.
“We have deployed a dedicated team that’s working continuously to identify and investigate unfairly priced products that are now in high demand, such as protective masks and hand sanitizer,” the company added.
Amazon also said it is working with law enforcement officials. The company is “proactively sharing information with state attorneys general and federal regulators about sellers we suspect have engaged in egregious price gouging of products related to the COVID-19 crisis,” the retailer said.
As the coronavirus spreads around the U.S., some consumers have turned to hoarding goods like toilet paper, while retailers including Walmart are limiting purchases of products such as eggs and milk. Others sensed a business opportunity and started selling hard-to-get products for many times their former value on Amazon, eBay and other sites.
Amazon earlier this month scrubbed its site of outlandishly priced face masks and hand sanitizers. U.S. PIRG, a consumer advocacy group, found that most of the products cost at least 50% more than usual on Amazon in the weeks after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global health emergency.
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Praise the Lord. Get those criminals outta here baby.
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I’m sure some of you have at least heard about this: https://amazonrelieffund.org/
Mr. Bezos is asking for donations from the public - absolutely disgraceful.
Who can apply for assistance from the fund?
Initially, the Fund will focus on qualifying individuals within the U.S. who have been quarantined or diagnosed with COVID-19. Initial qualifying individuals include: Flex Delivery Partners, Delivery Associates employed by a Delivery Service Providers, Associates employed by Integrity Staffing, Adecco Staffing, or RES Staffing, and Drivers and support teams of middle mile Line haul carrier partners. All Amazon employees who have been quarantined by a government or Amazon representative or diagnosed with COVID-19 certified by a medical professional, will receive up to two paid weeks off, which is unrelated to the Fund.
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Yeah - those are all Amazon’s own listings. Amazon’s bots raised the prices by about 40-50% of just about all of their sanitizer / masks / etc once they booted 3P sellers from the listings. Amazon needs to look at itself first and fix that. Anytime something came in stock with Amazon as the seller, if you checked the price history, the price was usually 40-50% higher than it ever had been for years.
If Amazon really wants to help out, they should greatly reduce or eliminate fees for essential supplies, so that 3P sellers can sell them lower. Amazon is quick to forget that 3P sellers can’t ship 5 pounds items for 50 cents like they can.
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I can’t even find a way to report another one. I am beyond frustrated! I buy medical supplies for my mother-in-law’s in home care. This morning I saw a few bottles of what I wanted at $40 a piece which is already too high. I come back and they are all gone but one gallon now at $219.
I don’t mind seeing the ones out of stock because everybody is needing them but the gouging… GRRRRRRR
