Amazon has been forced to crackdown on sellers after ‘ridiculous’ prices appeared online (Picture: Getty/Amazon

Amazon and eBay sellers have been slammed for taking advantage of desperate British shoppers amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The price of hand sanitiser has been sent soaring online, after 87 people in the UK were diagnosed with the deadly illness.

On Amazon, one vendor is attempting to sell a 10 pack of 60ml Purrell hand gel for £359.99, while a 300ml Purell hand sanitiser bottle is going for £54.99.

Another seller is offering up a 500ml bottle of Medex Sanitiser for £49.99, while a fourth account has advertised a tiny 40g bottle of Mango Shimmer anti-bacterial hand gel for £24.99.


One seller attempted to shift a 10-pack of 60ml Purell hand gel for £359.99 (Picture: Amazon)

The price tag on an 1200ml bottle of Purell left shoppers in disbelief (Picture: Amazon)

This eBay deal worked out at £33.33 per 200ml bottle (Picture: eBay)

One vendor tried to sell a 500ml bottle of anti-bacterial gel for £35.84 (Picture: eBay)

This tiny 60ml bottle of alcohol gel would put an eBay customer back £17.90 (Picture: eBay)

A similar situation is occurring on eBay, with one seller cashing in by selling three 200ml Dettol Instant Hand Sanitiser bottles for £99.99 – working out to £33.33 each.



Alternatively, those looking to protect themselves from coronavirus can cough up £19.30 for a 60ml bottle of Purell Hand Sanitiser, or pay £35.84 for a 500ml family size bottle from another seller.

A shopper named Kara Wellington, 44, from Thornton Heath in south London, told Metro.co.uk that she got a nasty shock when she tried to buy hand sanitiser for her dad, who is seriously ill with Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.

Kara turned to online shopping after finding supermarkets and pharmacies near her had sold out of hand gel, but started to ‘panic’ when she found some sellers were asking for £50 for small bottles.

She said: ‘Sellers are in full swing to rip the general public off. People should know this is available in supermarkets for £1 and not these ridiculous prices.

‘We have to do everything to protect ourselves and most of all dad because the virus will kill him. As a worried daughter, washing won’t be enough and hand gels will ease our minds.

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‘I also want to protect myself as I’m high risk with underlying health conditions and I travel to work on public transport and work for large office company so I can easily catch a cold or coronavirus.’

Another Amazon customer named Tom Hall, 28, has blasted opportunistic sellers for ‘making a quick pound’.

The film producer, from Shepherd’s Bush in west London, said: ‘It’s absolutely outrageous. It’s not fair on us everyday people, especially since no one really knows what this virus will lead to.

‘If anything, companies should be supplying sanitiser for free or at a lower price to help be the hero in stopping this epidemic. People are afraid . Don’t take advantage of that.’

An Amazon spokesperson told Metro.co.uk the company has teams working around the clock to monitor prices and are suspending or removing selling privileges for sellers who attempt to cash in on coronavirus fear.

A 40g bottle of mango shimmer hand gel cost £24.99 on Amazon (Picture: Amazon)

Shoppers have slammed sellers for trying to ‘make a quick pound’ (Picture: Amazon)

Amazon has said vendors must be compliant with the company’s Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy (Picture: Amazon)

The company is suspending or removing selling privileges for those who try to take advantage of the public (Picture: Amazon)

Coronavirus has now infected more than 94,000 people worldwide (Picture: Amazon)

The spokesperson added: ‘There is no place for price gouging on Amazon. 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, have recently blocked or removed tens of thousands of offers. We proactively remove offers that violate our policies.’



An eBay spokesperson said the company was ‘taking action’ on the inflated price listings and had been ’employing a combination of digital and manual surveillance tools to remove products marketed with the term “coronavirus”.’

PZ Cussons, the firm behind Carex handwash, has ‘urged on-line sellers not to sell above the recommended retail price for our products, which has not changed, and to act responsibility in helping get the product into the hands of those who need it’.

The price hikes come as England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty warns that an epidemic on British soil is now ‘highly likely’.

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On Tuesday, Boris Johnson revealed his coronavirus battle plan, saying the British Army would be drafted in to keep essential services running in a ‘worst-case scenario’.

In a ‘stretching scenario’, it is possible that up to one fifth of employees may be absent from work during peak weeks, the government says.

The spread of coronavirus has been declared a Level 4 incident by the NHS England – the highest category of emergency – while the World Health Organisation says it now presents a ‘very high’ risk on a ‘global level’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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