Amazon has kicked out around 4,000 sellers from its US store on allegation of price gouging during the novel Coronavirus pandemic. Amazon has confirmed the news via an official blog on Monday alongside mentioning that it has also removed over half a million products from those sellers.
The global e-commerce brand has asserted that it has started taking prompt enforcement actions "promptly upon discovering this kind of misconduct, and we've been partnering directly with law enforcement agencies to combat price gougers and hold them accountable."
Amazon kicks out 4,000 sellers for price gouging allegations
Amazon has claimed that it is keeping an eye over the listing and pricing of products with false claims in regards to COVID-19. "We have dynamic, automated systems in place that locate and remove unfairly priced items. In addition, 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 said in its blog post.
"If we find a price that violates our policy, we remove the offer and take swift action against bad actors engaged in demonstrated misconduct, including suspending or terminating their selling accounts and referring them to law enforcement agencies for prosecution under relevant laws," it added.
Due to COVID-19 online shopping website orders have increased
Amazon has booted out around two and a half thousands of sellers and removed over 500,000 of products from its US store earlier this month. To deal with the price gougers, Amazon has started partnering with attorney generals and federal prosecutors from different states in the US to investigate and prosecute alleged price gougers.
Following the novel Coronavirus outbreak, online shopping websites orders has spiked up surprisingly. People from all over the world are eagerly buying a massive quantity of essential commodities alongside essential medical supplies, including masks, gloves, sanitizers and thermometers. Just yesterday US President Donald Trump has signed a deal to ban hoardings and price gouging of critical medical items including face masks.
