Date: September 13, 2018
Contact: mediacenter@freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org
FFMI Calls On Amazon To Stop Price Gouging Consumers As
They Prepare for Hurricane Florence, Troubling News Reports Show
Dramatic Increase In Prices For Water
Amazon Overcharging On Crucial Emergency Relief Supplies As Potentially-Catastrophic
Hurricane Florence Makes Landfall
News reports today have revealed the price of certain emergency relief supplies being sold on Amazon have more than doubled and being paired with exorbitant shipping costs as communities on the East Coast prepare for the potentially-catastrophic impact of Hurricane Florence.
These startling price increases come despite Amazon’s own policies explicitly stating that “sellers cannot set excessive order fulfillment and shipping costs.”
“These latest reports on Amazon’s underhanded tactics are unsettling,” said Martin Chávez, and former three-term Mayor of Albuquerque and national spokesperson of the Free & Fair Markets Initiative (FFMI). “Preparing for these kinds of emergencies requires broad support, and companies like Amazon should be stepping up to help these communities. Instead, our communities are being subjected to harmful business practices that threaten to cut off their access to water and other crucial relief supplies.”
“Amazon has tried to deflect blame to their third-party sellers, but the third-richest company in the world can do better than this. If Amazon cannot police its own platform during emergencies, that shows it is time for regulators should step in.”
“State attorneys general should immediately look into this greedy behavior and ensure that consumers are protected before this epic storm makes landfall. With billions in profits, Amazon should not be profiting off consumers in the midst of a natural disaster.”
FFMI has included images below that detail the extent of Amazon’s price gouging.
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ABOUT THE FREE & FAIR MARKETS INITIATIVE
The Free & Fair Markets Initiative (FFMI) is a non-profit coalition of businesses, consumer advocacy groups, workers and community activists committed to scrutinizing and highlighting emerging market trends that are stifling competition and innovation, influencing federal and local government spending, putting consumer data in harm’s way and limiting consumer choice. For a list of members, please visit https://freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org/about-us/members/. For more information on the Free & Fair Markets Initiative, please visit https://freeandfairmarketsinitiative.org.
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