Yahoo – AFP,
March 5, 2020
|
About half of Amazon sales come from third-party vendors as part of the company's online "marketplace." |
Amazon
pledged Thursday to take steps to fight price gouging after a US senator
complained of "unjustifiably high prices" on hand sanitizers and surgical
masks to protect against coronavirus infections.
The US
retail giant responded to a letter from Senator Ed Markey, who wrote that
Amazon appeared to be profiting from panic buying related to the epidemic.
"We
agree with Senator Markey -- there is no place for price gouging on Amazon and
that's why our teams are monitoring our store 24/7 and have already removed
tens of thousands of offers for attempted price gouging," an Amazon
spokesperson said in an email.
"We
are disappointed that bad actors are attempting to take advantage of this
global health crisis and, in addition to removing these offers, we are
terminating accounts."
About half
of Amazon sales come from third-party vendors as part of the company's online
"marketplace."
Markey
questioned Amazon's vigilance after a series of media reports highlighted
markups on some items of as much as 2,000 percent, with one report indicating
the company's enforcement of its fair-pricing policy as "haphazard."
"No
one should be allowed to reap a windfall from fear and human suffering,"
Markey said Wednesday. "I'm calling on Amazon to stop and prevent
coronavirus-inspired price gouging."
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