Amazon has suspended more than 6,000 sellers for price gouging amid coronavirus crisis

Amazon has suspended more than 6,000 vendors, totaling more than 500,000 listings, from its website for price gouging during the coronavirus pandemic, CEO and founder Jeff Bezos told investors Thursday.

This comes after Amazon in a blog post last month said it had suspended over 3,900 vendors on its U.S. site.

“Amazon turned over information about sellers we suspect engaged in price gouging of products related to COVID-19 to 42 state attorneys general offices,” Bezos wrote in the letter to investors.

“To accelerate our response to price-gouging incidents, we created a special communication channel for state attorneys general to quickly and easily escalate consumer complaints to us,” he added.

The company has received criticism during the pandemic for the lack of availability of essential goods such as hand sanitizer and toilet paper.

Also in the letter, Bezos said that mass global testing would be needed to “get the economy back up and running” after the pandemic.

“If every person could be tested regularly, it would make a huge difference in how we fight this virus,” he wrote. “Those who test positive could be quarantined and cared for, and everyone who tests negative could re-enter the economy with confidence.”

The online retail giant has faced criticism for its response to the virus and its treatment of its employees. 

Its move to fire three employees who publicly criticized the company for warehouse conditions drew backlash from Washington.

The company confirmed earlier this week that a warehouse worker had died of coronavirus on March 31, but it was not clear where that employee had contracted the virus.