How Amazon raised prices to profit from the pandemic

by Alex Harman

Part 13 - Conclusion

Price gouging is an exploitive business practice that manipulates markets and takes advantage of people at their most vulnerable and desperate. While some economic theories support price gouging as a function of supply and demand, they overlook the market manipulation that occurs when gougers contribute to scarcity by hoarding.

Much of our society has decided that price gouging during an emergency is unacceptable and should be prohibited by law. Yet, despite general agreement that price gouging is wrong and a large majority of states with price gouging laws in place, the practice continues on Amazon.com.

Amazon’s leadership has made clear that they do not tolerate price gouging and that they will stop third-party sellers from taking advantage of the pandemic. However, it is clear that not only are third-party sellers engaged in price gouging, but Amazon itself is selling essential products at significant price increases, and in many cases at a much higher price than other national retailers.

It is troubling that so much effort was put into blaming third-party sellers, but so little effort was made to stop the price increases – including on the products sold by Amazon directly. Amazon is not merely a victim in the price gouging on its marketplace. It is a perpetrator.

A federal price gouging statute that augments state laws is needed to address this problem. It should be in place so that the next emergency, big or small, does not produce price gougers as this one has.

In addition, Amazon needs to make significant reforms to prevent abuse on its site, and to provide consumers with the tools necessary to identify problematic prices and report them. Amazon already has demonstrated a desire to be a leader in combating price gouging. By implementing these reforms Amazon could serve as a model for other online retailers to help prevent price gouging in the future.

During emergencies, people are scared, desperate, and in need. Price gouging is an insidious exploitation of the most vulnerable. There is no excuse for the most successful corporations preying on vulnerable consumers by price gouging.

***

Source, links, references:

https://www.citizen.org/article/prime-gouging/

[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Comments

Capitalism & Genocide - Yanis Varoufakis Speech at the Gaza Tribunal, 23rd October 2025, Istanbul

Yanis Varoufakis On 23rd October, Yanis Varoufakis testified in front of the Jury of Conscience in the context of the Gaza Tribunal. His speech focused on the economic forces underpinning the genocide of the Palestinian people. In particular, he spoke on the manner in which capitalist dynamics have historically fuelled the white settler colonial project and, more recently, how the accumulation of a new form of capital - which he calls cloud capital - has accelerated, deepened and amplified the economic forces powering and propelling the machinery of genocide.

This Is Why Iran Will DEFEAT The United States & Israel!

The Jimmy Dore Show

Saudi Arabia & Qatar caught Mossad agents planning false flag operations inside their soil to blame Iran

Tucker Carlson says Saudi Arabia & Qatar caught & arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries. pic.twitter.com/6PUxWeUymu — Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) March 3, 2026

Trump's war in Iran crushes US working class, enriches cronies

The Grayzone The Grayzone 's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate discuss how Trump's cronies are exploiting the Strait of Hormuz crisis he instigated to manipulate markets while US consumers feel the pain.

Iran War Collapses U.S. Neoliberal Economy

Glenn Diesen Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, the former Finance Minister of Greece, and the author of numerous bestselling books. Yanis Varoufakis discusses the historical mistake of attacking Iran (again).

US-Israeli attack on Iran expands into GLOBAL WAR: EU & UK join, Canada supports, Gulf regimes hit

Geopolitical Economy Report The US-Israeli war on Iran is expanding into a global conflict. The European Union supports it. The UK is letting Trump use British bases. Germany and France are involved. Canada backs it. Tehran has retaliated, in self-defense, hitting US military bases in Gulf countries. Ben Norton explains.

A response to misinformation on Nicaragua: it was a coup, not a ‘massacre’

There is so much misinformation in mainstream corporate media about recent events in Nicaragua that it is a pity that Mary Ellsberg’s article for Pulse has added to it with a seemingly leftish critique. Ellsberg claims that recent articles, including from this website, often “ paint a picture of the crisis in Nicaragua that is dangerously misleading. ” Unfortunately, her own article does just that. It looks at the situation entirely from the perspective of those opposing Daniel Ortega’s government while whitewashing their malevolent behavior and downplaying the levels of US support they have relied on. Her piece is an incomplete depiction of what is happening on the ground, ignoring many salient facts that have come to light and which have been outdated by recent events. The following is a brief response to Ellsberg’s main points from someone who lives in Nicaragua and has observed the situation directly and intimately: https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/15/a-res...

Iran could be the US’s Boer war: a hollow victory that marks the beginning of the end of empire

US leaders anticipated a walkover. Now they’re embroiled in a conflict that could hasten the end of US economic dominance by Larry Elliott Nobody gave the Boers a prayer when the war in South Africa began in 1899. It was farmers ranged against the might of the British empire, and the expectation was that resistance would quickly crumble. Eventually, might did prevail. Britain won the Boer war, but it was a hollow victory that took the best part of three years to achieve and came at a high cost. The blow to British prestige – coming at a time when its global hegemony was under threat from fast-growing countries such as the US – was severe. Far from highlighting the extent of Britain’s power, it exposed its limitations. A century and a quarter later, the US risks being embroiled in its equivalent of the Boer war. What should have been a walkover threatens to become a prolonged conflict. The Iranians are using guerrilla tactics, just as the Boers did, with much success. There ...

Stephen Hawking confirms: The problem is Capitalism, not robots!

globinfo freexchange According to world famous physicist Stephen Hawking, the rising use of automated machines may mean the end of human rights – not just jobs. But he’s not talking about robots with artificial intelligence taking over the world, he’s talking about the current capitalist political system and its major players. On Reddit, Hawking said that the economic gap between the rich and the poor will continue to grow as more jobs are automated by machines, and the owners of said machines hoard them to create more wealth for themselves. The insatiable thirst for capitalist accumulation bestowed upon humans by years of lies and terrible economic policy has affected technology in such a way that one of its major goals has become to replace human jobs. If we do not take this warning seriously, we may face unfathomable corporate domination. If we let the same people who buy and sell our political system and resources maintain control of automated technology, the...

What Iran, Russia & China just did is HUGE, War BACKFIRES on Trump

Danny Haiphong Iran's shocking response to Trump's imminent attack is sending fear down the spines of the US military as war leaves them defenseless from Iranian missile fire says Mohammad Marandi. This video breaks down why this war is already backfiring on Trump.

the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Search This Blog