US states pursue about 6,000 complaints of price gouging

Bloomberg

Amazon, Walmart, EBay and other large online sellers were urged by state law enforcement officials to crack down on price gouging that preys on panic over the coronavirus pandemic amid surging complaints by consumers.
The attorneys general of New York and California called on the companies to take action as 6,000 complaints have poured in to authorities across the US in the past month, with outrage
expressed at everything from $80 hand sanitiser to a 50% hike in rice prices.
“Price gouging during a time of national emergency is not only disgraceful, it is illegal,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Large online marketplaces have a responsibility to the public to take immediate and vigorous steps to eliminate predatory behaviour, which they know is illegal, from their platforms.”
As Americans hunker down and hoard to survive the coronavirus pandemic, regulators are rushing to stamp out exploitative pricing. They’re poring over emails, sending inspectors to check out tips and firing off cease-and-desist letters, according to an analysis by Bloomberg of data and reports from more than 40 states.
Amazon tweeted a response to Becerra and said it welcomes the opportunity to work with officials to help prosecute “bad actors.”
“We are disappointed that bad actors are attempting to artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis and, in line with our long-standing policy, we have recently blocked or removed hundreds of thousands of offers,” the company said in a statement.
Online platforms don’t have the incentive to self-police themselves because they get a cut of each transaction, including every pack of toilet paper sold for $60, said Tristan Snell, a lawyer with Tristan Snell Plc who previously worked on consumer protection issues for the New York attorney general’s office. Many of the abuses are coming from sellers using Amazon and Walmart third-party platforms to jack up prices for household staples, he said.
“There’s no doubt that online commerce has exacerbated this problem,” he said. “The idea of cornering a market was something that used to be reserved for millionaire financiers. It’s a very old timey kind of thing. But we literally are at a point where people can corner the market in hand sanitiser.”
Walmart, eBay and Craigslist didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Retailers of all sizes are in now in the cross-hairs. In Washington, the state with the first confirmed case of the virus in the country, Attorney General Bob Ferguson is sending a
team of 10 investigators to stores to examine products on the shelf and issuing subpoenas to websites.
“Washingtonians are facing a life-and-death situation” and need access to “critical goods,” Ferguson said in an interview. “My mom is 91 years old. It’s important for individuals like my mom to have access to hand sanitiser. They can cost 60 bucks for a four-ounce container.”
The complaints spiked after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency last week, leading many state and local governments to do the same. They come as authorities in Europe grapple with similar concerns. Also, the UK’s competition regulator launched a task force to crack down on such exploitation.
The European Union’s anti-fraud office said it’s probing sales of fake medical and personal protection products.