Thermometers are selling for hundreds of dollars on Amazon as the company tries to curb price-gouging

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

A worker checks the temperature of a passenger arriving into Hong Kong International Airport with an infrared thermometer, following the coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong, China, February 7, 2020.

• Thermometers are selling for hundreds of dollars on Amazon as the online retailer seeks to curb price-gouging during the coronavirus epidemic.
• One listing was charging $504 for a contactless thermometer at the time of publishing.
• Other listings ran upwards of $100 or $200 for thermometers similar to ones selling at CVS for around $60.
• Amazon said it's working to stop artificially-inflated prices on its platform, and said earlier this month that it had removed over 530,000 items like face masks and hand sanitizer from its platform because of price gouging.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Thermometers are selling for hundreds of dollars on Amazon as the online retailer tries to curb price-gouging during the coronavirus pandemic.

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One listing for a non-contact infrared thermometer was selling for over $500 on Amazon at the time of publishing. Other listings were charging over $100 or $200. A similar non-contact thermometer was selling for around $60 on CVS' website.

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Amazon did not respond to a request for comment, but said in a statement to customers on its website that it is actively monitoring its marketplace and removing offers that violate policies against price-gouging.

"We're also working to ensure that no one artificially raises prices on basic need products during this pandemic and have blocked or removed tens of thousands of items, in line with our long-standing policy," the company said.

Amazon said earlier this month that it has removed over 530,000 items and 2,500 sellers from its platform for price-gouging. The company also said it is assisting state attorneys general in prosecuting extreme cases of price-gouging.

A Tennessee man who hoarded over 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer before being blocked from selling them recently donated the supplies after Tennessee's attorney general investigated him for price-gouging, according to a report for The New York Times.

Do you work at Amazon and know more about the company's approach to preventing price-gouging? Contact the reporter of this piece, Bryan Pietsch, at bpietsch@businessinsider.com.