It has been brought to the notice that many sellers on the ecommerce platform Amazon India are trying to sell COVID-19-related essentials beyond the maximum retail price (MRP). Taking cognisance of this, Amazon India said it was removing listings and suspending accounts of sellers on its platform pricing their products above the MRP.
According to Moneycontrol, taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation many sellers have tried to make extra bucks by selling products at prices higher.
“There is no place for price gouging on Amazon and in line with our policy we continue to actively monitor our marketplace and take necessary action including removal of listings and suspension of accounts against sellers who are selling products above the MRP, which is in violation of Indian laws,” reads a statement from Amazon India.
This is not just limited to Amazon’s India business but other markets as well. In February, Amazon had warned third-party sellers on its marketplace to refrain from charging exorbitant prices for face masks, stated CNBCTV18.
In March 2020, the company had witnessed a similar issue. At that time, the global company stated, “Amazon has zero-tolerance for price gouging and longstanding policies and systems to prevent this harmful practice. We’re working vigorously to combat price gouging…”
The ecommerce player is making clear to all of our sellers our longstanding policies that ensure fair pricing; monitoring stores 24/7 though both automated and manual means and aggressively removing bad actors and offers; and complying with government price circulars by taking action on violating offers. At that time, it had reported to have removed as many as 530,000 products from its marketplace and suspended 2,500 seller accounts.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the apex body of traders in the country, on April 26 accused e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart of taking undue advantage by delivering non-essential items. "In furtherance of the illegal activities being carried out by Amazon and Flipkart, they have started taking undue advantage of the pandemic by making illegitimate financial gains by supplying non-essential items which have been strictly prohibited by many state administrations due to ongoing lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic," the traders' body stated in its letter to Union Minister Piyush Goyal.
