Some useful Amazon price gouging guidance for merchants has been published. This is both a warning to those looking to make excessive profits from the Coronavirus pandemic as well as serving as a guide to merchants who have genuinely seen their wholesale costs sky rocket through price rises due to short supply.

In essence, Amazon monitor both previous sale prices on Amazon as well as those across the entire industry to decide what is price gouging and what’s acceptable. Whilst they suggest that perhaps a 10% increase in prices is fine, they also recognise that in same cases cost of goods and other expenses have significantly increased prices.

If for example you’re selling a hand sanitiser that used to cost you £3 and is now costing you £4 at wholesale, naturally your prices will have to rise by more than 10%. However if you’re selling something like toilet roll where prices in shops and online have remained stable and you try to sell it at two or three times the normal prevailing price then expect your account to be limited or at the very least for your offer to be suppressed.

Amazon price gouging guidance