Amazon Stops Sale of 1 Million Products Claiming to Cure COVID-19

Amazon Stops Sale of 1 Million Products Claiming to Cure COVID-19

The huge jump came as local officials said they were changing the way they diagnose COVID-19 cases.

In an attempt to curb fear-mongering around coronavirus, Amazon has barred more than 1 million products that falsely claimed to cure or protect against COVID-19.

According to a report by Reuters, Amazon.com Inc removed thousands of goods from sellers attempting to price-gouge which is to unreasonably inflate the price of goods sold to an exploitative extent. This usually happens after natural or man-made calamities and exploits customers who are already in a vulnerable state.

An Amazon spokesperson read a statement announcing that, “There is no place for price gouging on Amazon.”

This move was made after the Internet giant was under scrutiny over the sale of their health and health-related products. Italy, in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak, raised a probe into the high online prices for sanitizers and masks.

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On Thursday, 27 February, a Reuters reporter saw that a ten-pack of the popular N-95 mask was for a whopping $128, when earlier it was priced around $41. Later on Thursday, the product was not listed on the site.

The novel coronavirus is a WHO certified public health emergency, and accessible healthcare products are the need of the hour. Any product that has false information should be barred from sale.

(With inputs from Reuters. )

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