$400 for Purell? U.S. lawmaker urges Amazon to tamp down price gouging

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

TECHNOLOGY NEWS MARCH 4, 2020 / 5:24 PM / UPDATED 25 MINUTES AGO

$400 for Purell? U.S. lawmaker urges Amazon to tamp down price gouging

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc should stop third-party sellers from price gouging for items like Purell hand sanitizer as people seek to protect themselves from the coronavirus, U.S. Senator Edward Markey said in a letter to the online retailer on Wednesday.

A box of small Purell bottles that usually sells for $10 was listed online for $400, he said. One third-party seller listed a bottle for $600 on Wednesday afternoon. However, the Amazon brand of hand sanitizer was listed for $8.25 for a large bottle.

Amazon was not immediately available for comment but last week it barred more than 1 million products that inaccurately claimed to cure or defend against the coronavirus.

The virus, which first erupted in China, has sickened more than 94,000 people globally and killed 3,220. The disease was recently detected in the United States and has killed 11 people in this country.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-com/400-for-purell-u-s-lawmaker-urges-amazon-to-tamp-down-price-gouging-idUSKBN20R384?il=0

[MichMan]

1. Easy solution- Don't buy from people charging ridiculous amounts like that

Why would anyone pay that amount ?

[Kaleva]

2. Have no idea. Just bought 2 30 oz bottles at DG for $4 each.

Same price I had paid in January.

[Eugene]

3. If you look only at the first page of results and don't search really hard

First available result: 8 oz 2-pack: $48.76

Two weeks ago an Amazon 64 oz bottle was going for about $12.

It only take a few 99.9 percentile low-information consumers to make $400 hand sanitizer movable.

[Ms. Toad]

4. They already announced they were doing that - and removed a bunch of things.

Amazon is cracking down on third-party merchants for selling coronavirus-related products at inflated prices. The company says it has recently blocked or removed tens of thousands of listings for such products, like face masks and hand sanitizer.

“There is no place for price gouging on Amazon,” the company said in a statement.

On Amazon, some third-party sellers have been charging hundreds of dollars for a couple small bottles of hand sanitizer or a box of protective face masks.

https://www.marketplace.org/2020/03/03/coronavirus-facemasks-amazon-price-gouging/

[stillcool]

5. I saw an article a while back..

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/484594-amazon-warns-face-mask-sellers-about-price-gouging-amid-coronavirus-fears

people being people. Got to blame someone.

[Dennis Donovan]

6. I just snipped this from Amazon - $31 per 8 oz bottle

Reminds me of the price gouging on Gas Masks right after 9/11 (during the anthrax scare).

[Hortensis]

7. Just purchased similar in a home and garden store

in the cleaning products aisle for ordinary price. Most happily, they had plenty of cans of hand wipes, the kind you pull through a hole in the top, for $5 for the ordinary ones. I purchased one container for each vehicle.

I haven't given thought to what Amazon should do or know what legal standards for these situations are. But I do know freedom requires enough looseness for individual pursuits of happiness and make choices. The more protective the laws, the more oppressive. There has to be a balance.

[maxsolomon]

8. SOCIALISM!

How dare they regulate the Free Market!

[tinymontgomery]

9. Possibly Make Your Own

I read, whether or not it is true, is to make our own sanitizer. Mix 70% rubbing alcohol with hand lotion and you have
made sanitizer. Not sure of the mix.