At a press conference on Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would begin to manufacture its own hand sanitizer at the cost of $6 a gallon, as part of a broader effort to contain the coronavirus epidemic that is currently causing widespread disruptions across the United States. The product, called NYS Clean, is currently being kept off the private market—it’s planned for use in schools, prisons, and public transportation vehicles. However, Cuomo issued a warning: “To Purell and Mr. Amazon and Mr. Ebay, if you continue the price gouging, we will introduce our product, which is superior,” he said. “So stop the price gouging.”

Cuomo’s accusation did not emerge from a vacuum. In late February, Amazon made news when it made a show of warning third-party sellers on its online marketplace that price gouging on products that have been in high demand ever since the coronavirus took root—surgical masks, hand sanitizer, and similar hygiene-centered goods—would not be tolerated. Isolated, early reports suggested some of those sellers were upping prices for in-demand products by as much as four times the usual cost. At one time last week, the website reportedly listed a box of small bottles of Purell hand sanitizer that usually sells for $10 at $400.



Scandalized by the inhuman markup on sanitizers, Amazon pledged its innocence in a public statement: “There is no place for price gouging on Amazon.” The company went on to promise to intensify its monitoring of third-party “bad actors,” on whom it placed the blame. However, according to a new analysis by the consumer watchdog group U.S. PIRG Education Fund, in addition to third-party gouging, almost one in six of the millions of products sold directly by Amazon itself had prices spiked 50 percent higher than a recent 90-day average.



The implications of the study appear damning: One of the richest, most powerful corporations in the world is profiting from and taking advantage of fearful consumers desperately trying to protect themselves and the people for whom they are responsible from an epidemic. It raises serious doubts about how rigorous Amazon has been about systemically ensuring that neither its employees nor its algorithms are allowing buyers to be unethically overcharged. And its findings suggest that Amazon may, in fact, be in violation of several states’ anti-price-gouging laws. Lawmakers reluctant to take on the company may be forced to do more than issue stern warnings.



At the very least, this evidence of gouged prices directly from Amazon seems to violate the company’s own “Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy,” which guards against “pricing practices that harm customer trust” and threatens consequences for listing “a price on a product or service that is significantly higher than recent prices offered on or off Amazon.” U.S. PIRG found that, in recent weeks, the average price of the hand sanitizer and mask products in their study was 220 percent higher than their 90-day average.

