American multinational conglomerate 3M is suing an Amazon third party seller known as KMJ Trading Inc for selling counterfeit copies of its N95 respiratory masks. KMJ allegedly sold up to $350,000 worth of N95 respirator masks according to The Wall Street Journal.

The masks became an essential item and have skyrocketed in sales since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. KMJ is said to have listed the masks for up to $23. This represents a huge markup from its usual price of $1.27. Amazon had warned its Marketplace sellers against price gouging since February 2020. Then the eCommerce giants restricted the sales of both face masks and hand sanitizer on 11th March 2020.

KMJ is alleged to have done the price-gouging before those restrictions were put in place around 24th February 2020. The seller had multiple accounts to make the sales, offering 45 different products across three different stores on Amazon.

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3M didn’t raise the price of its N95 masks. However, since the pandemic, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been tightly controlling its supply in the US. The short supply and sudden surge in demand created a gap that KMJ and other sellers exploited. Part of the filing reveals that 3M has filed eleven other lawsuits relating to counterfeit products and price gouging against other sellers.

“By selling and delivering to customers counterfeit, damaged, deficient, or otherwise altered respirators and engaging in price-gouging, Defendants caused irreparable damage to 3M’s reputation. There is no adequate remedy at law for these injuries” 3M states in its complaint.

The company is demanding up to $2 million as statutory damages and a permanent injunction against the defendants from selling goods.

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