By Alexandra Berzon and Daniela Hernandez
As the coronavirus outbreak expanded across the globe, anxious
shoppers turned to Amazon.com Inc. for face masks, hand sanitizer
and other products promising to help protect against the virus.
The problem: Many didn't have federal certifications for the
safety standards they were touting, some were counterfeit or
deceptively labeled, and others were being sold at many times their
usual prices.
More than 100 safety masks and respirators on Amazon were
counterfeit or had unverifiable protection and certification
claims, a Wall Street Journal investigation found.
There were several listings, for example, for a protective mask
listed from a company called Benehal, which the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health, or Niosh, warned last year was a counterfeit.
Another listing for pink, latex-free gloves promised to "prevent
coronavirus, flu and pneumonia." No consumer-grade gloves do that.
Several other Amazon postings for fisherman-style hats with plastic
face shields were being marketed as protection that "effectively
isolates saliva carrying viruses."
At the same time, some sellers were taking advantage of the
virus panic to price gouge.
Prices on Amazon spiked by at least 50% for more than half the
listings of surgical masks and hand sanitizers in the weeks after
the coronavirus crisis came to the U.S. in late January, according
to a study by the consumer advocacy organization U.S. PIRG
Education Fund.
The group found one case in which a package of 320 Lysol
disinfecting wipes that typically sold for an average $13.57 over
three months rose to $220 on March 3. It also found a listing for
Purell sanitizer that normally sells for $7.99 going for as high as
$49.95.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the price gouging is "a clear
violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas,
illegal."
In a letter sent Friday responding to an inquiry from Sen. Ed
Markey (D., Mass.) about price gouging, Brian Huseman, Amazon vice
president for public policy, wrote that the company bans excessive
prices and uses automated and manual methods to detect potential
scams.
The company scans billions of price changes a week and has
removed 530,000 offers and suspended 2,500 accounts because of
coronavirus-related price gouging, he said. The company also
removed millions of products that make unsupported claims about the
coronavirus, he added.
Amazon said it is also working with several state attorneys
general to prosecute offenders. "We will continue to assist all
efforts to combat abuse in our store," Mr. Huseman wrote.
Mr. Markey later praised Amazon's response in a tweet. "All
online retailers need to hold accountable predatory price-gougers
who are profiting from panic," he said.
The retail giant is grappling with such problems, as it faces
rising concerns from legislators and the public about the sale of
dangerous, banned and counterfeit products on its vast online
marketplace.
The challenge of policing bad actors and dangerous products is
especially acute during major events that galvanize the public,
when Amazon is swarmed with third-party sellers trying to
capitalize on a sudden surge in demand. Ahead of the total solar
eclipse in the U.S. in 2017, the website was overrun with
counterfeit protective glasses that put users at risk of eye
damage.
Amazon refunded customers who bought from third-party sellers
that didn't provide documentation verifying their products complied
with safety standards. Listings from sellers without documentation
were also removed.
The Journal's examination of coronavirus-related products
included an analysis of 194 listings claiming to be N95 or N99
masks, designations for the percentage of airborne particles that
are filtered out when used properly.
Masks used in industrial settings in the U.S. must be certified
by Niosh.
Of the listings, the Journal found that about 65% didn't appear
to be Niosh-certified--making it impossible in many cases for
consumers to know whether those masks would meet the N95 standard.
The images included on some of those product listings appeared to
be basic surgical masks instead of the more complex N95
respirator.
Sixteen of the listings made explicit certification claims that
were either false or unverifiable.
A Niosh official who works on the verification of masks said the
agency is having difficulty keeping up with the proliferation of
improperly labeled or noncertified N95s online.
An agency spokesman explained that Niosh has very little if any
legal recourse against sellers of masks claiming to meet the
agency's standards but without going through certification.
All the Amazon listings for N95s included in the Journal's
analysis were from third-party sellers, and many appeared to be
newly created, based on the dates of the earliest comments. Many of
the listings were also sponsored content, meaning the seller paid
for high placement in relevant searches.
N95s are special masks used by health-care workers to protect
themselves from germs patients might spread. But public-health
experts warn that even fully certified masks are ineffective for
the general public--and can even be dangerous for giving a false
sense of security--because they have to be correctly fitted and
tested.
As the novel coronavirus spreads, mask shortages have become a
key challenge, even as health officials tell consumers not to buy
them. Some medical providers are now turning to less reliable
sellers online.
"A lot of health-care providers are at institutions or settings
where there's a shortage, and so doctors themselves are going
online [and] buying masks," said Daniel Griffin, an infectious
disease physician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in
New York.
Dr. Griffin said some of his colleagues had acquired purported
N95 masks online, though he hadn't seen them in use at any of the
hospitals where he works.
Other, smaller online marketplaces have also struggled recently
to fight price gouging and questionable products targeting the
outbreak. Marketplaces operated both by Facebook Inc. and eBay Inc.
were still carrying N95 masks from third-party sellers earlier this
week, after both said last week that they were blocking sales.
EBay's ban covered all coronavirus-related safety gear. That
followed an alert by the California attorney general that the
state's declaration of a state of emergency had triggered a law
making it a crime to price-gouge emergency and medical
supplies.
EBay was still working this week to take down
coronavirus-related safety products, according to a person familiar
with the matter.
In addition to the N95s, the Journal also found more than a
dozen new listings on Amazon for disposable gloves that falsely
claimed to have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The names of the products and manufacturers didn't appear in an FDA
database of registered items.
The U.S. PIRG study found that price spikes for virus-related
products were more robust among third-party sellers. Mask prices
rose by much more than hand sanitizers, spiking an average of 166%
during that time.
Even products Amazon sold itself showed increases: The prices of
nearly one in six were 50% higher than the average over the
preceding three-month period, the organization found.
The group used price-tracking software to examine prices on
Amazon for the highest-ranking search results in the weeks after
the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on
Jan. 30 as compared with the average 90-day price between Dec. 1
and Feb. 29.
Many of the listings analyzed by the PIRG and the Journal were
later removed from the site or listed as unavailable.
On Sunday evening, Adam Garber, a researcher for PIRG pointed
out that a company called ErYao was listing a generic bottle
containing less than 2 ounces of hand sanitizer for $459.
Mr. Garber said sellers were taking advantage of people who are
"freaking out and hitting 'buy' on something and trusting the
system to get them the right thing," he said.
Asked for comment through Amazon's messaging system, a person
using the ErYao seller account said the price was based on the cost
of the materials.
Shane Shifflett contributed to this article.
Write to Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com and
Daniela Hernandez at daniela.hernandez@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 11, 2020 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024