The outbreak of the coronavirus outside China has triggered the sale of medical devices in Spain, where the demand for masks has increased by 10,000% compared to January last year, according to the latest data from the Federation of Pharmaceutical Distributors (Fedifar). This has made pharmacies run out of stock and users turn to the Internet to get them. Some merchants who use Amazon to sell their products have taken advantage of the situation to increase the prices of masks and disinfectant gels, the most requested items. In response, the company is tracking its website “on an ongoing basis” identifying merchants who put these oversized amounts.
“Commercial partners set their own prices in our store,” explains an Amazon spokesperson to EL PAÍS. But even so, they must adhere to the fair pricing policy established by the company. “We are actively tracking our website and will remove offers that violate any of our policies.” This action is a response to the escalation of prices that have been observed in hygiene products in recent days due to the increase in demand. This Wednesday, the best seller in the health and personal care section of Amazon Spain was a hand sanitizer gel and several packs of disposable masks. Different types of these hygiene products, along with thermometers and antiseptic wipes, are among the 20 items most requested by customers.
As a consequence, prices have increased. A pack of 100 generic disposable masks went from 3.95 euros on Saturday to 149 euros on Tuesday, according to data from Keepa, a company that tracks prices on Amazon. The increase coincides with the detection of new cases of coronavirus in Spain, despite the fact that this type of protection is not useful to prevent contagion. This Wednesday it had dropped to 35 euros. FFP2 protective masks, unlike disposable ones, prevent small particles in the air and are used more frequently to protect against virus transmission. The price of a pack of 5 has gone from costing 15 euros to 99 in just three days. The increase has coincided with the arrival of the coronavirus in Italy.
Health authorities are not recommending the use of masks and are emphasizing much more effective measures, such as careful hand washing with soap and water.
price control
More than half of the items available on Amazon are put up for sale through merchants who use the platform to sell their products. It is in these items sold by third parties that price increases have been seen in recent days. To prevent these businesses from taking advantage of emergency situations, the company establishes a fair price based on the amounts of those same products in previous weeks and even on what they cost on websites other than Amazon.
The giant is crawling its website to detect that items conform to its policy and alert merchants when they don’t. If these sellers keep raising their prices, some of the consequences include having the offer withdrawn, suspending the shipping option, or, in the event of a repeat offense, temporarily or permanently suspending the merchant’s selling privileges.
Shoppers have complained on social media about the high prices of supplies on Amazon. It has also been hotly debated among users on the company’s official sales forum over the past week. It is not the first time that these complaints have occurred, it has also happened during other emergencies. As Hurricane Irma approached Florida in 2017, for example, rising bottled water prices sparked an outcry. online. On that occasion, Amazon declared to USA Today that they were proceeding as they are now: “We are actively monitoring our website and removing offers on bottled water that substantially exceed the most recent average selling price.” This is standard protocol in the company.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the authorities of Italy, a country that has so far suffered the largest outbreak of the disease in Europe, had opened an investigation into the prices online which they defined as “insane” for medical supplies, though without mentioning any particular website.