The biggest online retailer Amazon wants a law to be passed to make price gouging illegal. The retailer chain feels that this is the hour of national crisis and the price gouging is to be checked. In light of inflated prices on crucial goods like hand sanitizer and N95 masks, Amazon is facing lot of difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an open letter posted by Brian Huseman, Amazon’s VP of public policy, the company highlights its own ongoing efforts to try to crack down on price gouging. To date, Amazon says that it’s removed half a million price-gouged listings from its online stores and has banned 4,000 seller accounts on its US store alone for violating its Fair Pricing Policy. And as CEO Jeff Bezos noted in a letter to investors, Amazon has set up a special line of communication for state attorneys general to directly pass along price gouging complaints.

“While each state is unique and has the ability to enact individual legislative price gouging triggers and remedies, a federal price gouging law would ensure that there are no gaps in protection for consumers,” Huseman said. “This would also help retailers like Amazon more effectively prevent bad actors and ensure fair prices.”

During the pandemic, Amazon, Walmart and other e-commerce companies struggled to curb third-party sellers who overcharged for products that spiked in demand. Sellers inflated prices for face masks, hazmat suits and hand sanitizer, among other products.

But Amazon says that it can only do so much on its own. The company says that inconsistent state standards limit its ability to crack down on price gouging — while laws against raising prices during times of crisis currently exist in about two-thirds of the US, the rules are highly inconsistent from state to state. Amazon can kick off as many bad sellers as it can for violating its own policies, but there are often few subsequent legal consequences to help regulate inflated prices. A federal law, Amazon says, would ensure that there are “no gaps in protection for consumers” and would help Amazon and other retailers “more effectively prevent bad actors and ensure fair prices.”

Amazon’s proposal would see a price gouging law that “should kick in immediately when the federal government declares a public health crisis or national emergency, which will leave no room for doubt for businesses and enforcement agencies. It should also establish clear pricing standards, define who and what are covered by the law, and ensure strong enforcement authority.”

Unsurprisingly, Amazon’s proposed legislation would ensure that only the party that sets the price — like, say, a bad third-party Amazon retailer — be held liable for the inflated price, not the storefront (i.e. Amazon) that hosts that seller and facilitates the sale.

Amazon faced wide-ranging criticism for its failure to crack down on price gouging and products that made misleading claims about the coronavirus. Some third-party sellers exploited fears about the virus by incorrectly marketing face masks with specific keywords like “coronavirus face mask.” 

Source- The Verge