Selling Above MRP Priced Products is Restricted Now on Amazon India

While the whole world is struggling to keep alive amidst the growing pandemic, there are a few silent but powerful wars that are faced by every person. 

With a massive demand-supply gap amid the local lockdowns, consumers are hardening up due to the second wave of coronavirus infections spurt as prices of pulse oximeters, oxygen concentrators, vaporizers, and nebulizers have jumped sharply up to 100 percent in the last ten days.

Whether it is the physical stores or the online marketplaces, although having laid strict guidelines about pricing the medical goods, some sellers, companies, and importers have deliberately breached those guidelines. 

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the apex body of traders in the country, on April 26, accused e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart of delivering non-essential items scorning the COVID-19 restrictions imposed by states. CAIT raised the demand for the formation of Regulatory authority for India’s ecommerce market and is now requesting the Centre to issue a clarification on FDI policy regarding inventory control by foreign e-commerce companies

Amazon has removed over a million products that are extraordinarily overpriced above the maximum retail price (MRP) on the medical products. The price of oxygen concentrators, which generate oxygen from the air, soared more than 100 percent, while those of oximeters have risen up by Rs 1,000-2,000 in a week alone.

“There is no place for price gouging on Amazon, and in line with our policy, we continue to actively monitor our marketplace and take necessary action, including removal of listings and suspension of accounts against sellers who are selling products above the MRP, which is in violation of Indian laws,” reads a statement from Amazon India, an e-commerce giant in the country.

Amazon had pulled out over a million “high-priced offers” and suspended accounts of sellers who were found involved in price gouging last year. The company was reported to have removed as many as 530,000 products from its marketplace and suspended 2,500 seller accounts. It is following the same during this second wave, cut off the sellers that are not following the guidelines. 

Usually, on Amazon sellers are allowed to set their own prices, which led Amazon to violate FDI rules, though the site gives added prominence to those with the lowest rates and fastest delivery estimates.

While there are those who appreciate the online marketers for fighting against price gouging, there has been a report from US Public Interest Research Group- “Amazon has blamed third-party sellers, for the most part, when it comes to price gouging. So it’s important to show there were cases where Amazon was the supplier of products that were seeing massive price spikes,” Grace Brombach, US Public Interest Research Group report author said.

Amazon has disregarded those reports asking to compare the prices with its competitors amid the scarcity of supplies and said, “We have a longstanding policy against price gouging, have processes in place to proactively block suspicious offers, and monitor our store 24/7 for violations. In 2020 alone, we blocked or removed over 39 million offers and suspended more than 13,000 selling accounts for attempted price gouging,” FT quotes.

While Amazon regulates the prices on its platform, Flipkart states that it cannot regulate the prices on its marketplace, but it works towards and persuades the sellers into sensible pricing.