LITHIA, Fla. -- This week, Amazon kicked thousands of sellers off its site for price gouging and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced she’s investigating dozens of sellers amid the growing coronavirus pandemic.
But other Amazon sellers may have been price gouging, which is defined as when a seller increases the prices of goods, services of commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair.
Earlier this week, Amazon announced it removed 500,000 listings and 3,900 third-party sellers from its site for suspected price gouging.
“When we looked at the data, we saw price increases from both Amazon and third-party sellers,” said Greg Mercer, founder and CEO of Jungle Scout.
Mercer says Amazon not only earned commissions from those sellers accused of price gouging, it also more than doubled its own prices on essential goods as the COVID-19 pandemic grew between early January and mid-March.
We contacted Amazon about Jungle Scout’s findings, but a spokesperson wouldn’t directly answer our question about whether Amazon engaged in price gouging.
Attorney General Moody announced this week she has subpoenaed records from 40 Amazon sellers as part of her price gouging investigation. »
