Amazon has kicked 3,900 sellers off its platform for price gouging during the coronavirus crisis

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• Amazon announced Monday that it has booted 3,900 sellers off its platform for price gouging.
• The coronavirus crisis has sent demand for deliveries of medical and household items skyrocketing.
• Sellers have tried to take advantage, charging extortionate prices for items such as hand sanitizer and toilet roll.
• At the beginning of this month Amazon said it had banned 2,500 US seller accounts.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Amazon has booted almost 4,000 sellers off its platform for jacking up their prices during the coronavirus pandemic.

Amazon said in a company blog on Monday that it had removed 3,900 sellers for price gouging, and with them well over half a million extortionately priced items.

Earlier in March Amazon announced it had removed 530,000 listed products from site and suspended 2,500 US seller accounts.

“We are constantly monitoring our stores for unfair prices and listings that make 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.

Amazon didn’t specify what the accounts were selling.

“We are also 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 firm added.

On Monday President Trump signed an executive order specifically banning price gouging and hoarding of medical items like face masks.

Since the coronavirus started to spread across the globe, demand for Amazon deliveries has skyrocketed, and sellers have sought to benefit. Prices for items such as face masks, hand sanitizer, and thermometers have ballooned by hundreds of dollars.

Do you work for Amazon? Got a tip? Email this reporter at ihamilton@businessinsider.com or iahamilton@protonmail.com.

SEE ALSO: Big staff shortages, the 3-feet rule, and no more metal detectors: Inside Amazon warehouses during the coronavirus outbreak

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