Amazon fines ‘hidden COVID-19 patients’

Amazon has been fined $500,000 in California for failing to disclose COVID-19 case information to employees and health organizations.

California law requires that internal COVID-19 case information be disclosed to employees and health agencies. However, according to the state of California, Amazon has been negligent in releasing case information. Therefore, Amazon has been asked for several responses in court. First, it is imperative to accurately identify the number of COVID-19 cases at work and disclose it to employees. Next, notify the local health authorities of COVID-19 cases at work within 48 hours so that they can intervene. Next comes the disinfection and safety plan of the office and the payment of a $500,000 fine to the State of California.

State officials said the United States continues to fight COVID-19, and state law requires employers to notify employees of COVID-19 cases at work and report them to local health agencies. It emphasizes that it will help ensure the right to know about the risks.

Meanwhile, Amazon said that it has spent more than $15 billion to keep its employees safe, and that it will continue making similar investments for several years to come.

In addition, voices that Amazon’s measures against COVID-19 are insufficient are being raised by employees and health organizations in various places. He also sent a letter. Related information can be found here.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that Amazon has sent an email to a third-party retailer stating that it cannot register a new product unless the price of the product is below the price of the competitor.

According to reports, the information was obtained on condition of anonymity from the CEO of a company that registers as a third-party company on Amazon. The company has stopped its ability to list new products from early 2021. Sellers using the Amazon platform are more afraid of Amazon than the US government.

Amazon said in an email to the seller that it had stopped registering the company’s new product for protecting the customer experience. Amazon says it cannot maintain consistent customer experience standards across popular national brands because the prices of this vendor’s products are not guaranteed to be competitive with other vendors with a 95% chance, thereby creating a fraudulent experience for customers.

According to Amazon, the policy applies to only 1% of brands that sell products on Amazon. Amazon seems to be controlling this 1% seller price by calculating a price that is competitive with the product price in physical stores or online stores. This is important to consumers because they have many options such as Walmart, Target, and Costco. Although sellers have full control over pricing on Amazon, they say that if prices on Amazon are consistently higher than those of other retailers for widely recognized products, it will be considered cheating and will not be accepted by Amazon customers.

According to our coverage of five sellers pressured by Amazon to lower prices, some are large and have hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, but most of them deal with products from large companies such as L’Oreal, Unilever, and Johnson & Johnson and sell below the lowest price in the contract. it is forbidden For this reason, Amazon’s response has been criticized as completely unfair and unfounded. It is said that there are many products that are stored in warehouses without being sold for reasons of Amazon policy. In addition, it is said that the price correction that Amazon implements varies from a few cents to a request for a price reduction of 20%.

One congressman dealing with antitrust law points out that Amazon’s practice is a new avenue for Amazon to use its monopoly power to take full control of the market so that consumers have no options. Companies should be able to set their prices autonomously in a way that promotes competition.

Another expert points out that although Amazon.com’s policies ostensibly reduce Amazon.com prices, a more rigorous analysis is likely to drive up prices by competing retailers. Amazon denies this possibility, but in reality the brand is likely to limit distribution on Amazon and raise product prices in other distribution channels to avoid having lower prices only on Amazon. Related information can be found here.