Coronavirus effect: Amazon warns sellers against steep price hike of face masks

Tech giant Amazon is warning third-party sellers on its marketplace to refrain from charging exorbitant pricing for face masks amid the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak that is spreading globally.

Amazon has alerted merchants about face masks that are "not in compliance" with its pricing policies, according to an email provided by the tech major.

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One consultant who works with Amazon sellers said that listings for overpriced face masks had been deleted from the site. The topic "coronavirus and price gouging" has also been hotly debated among the users on Amazon`s official selling forum over the past week, the Wired reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the US Federal health officials have issued a grim warning about a "bad" spread of coronavirus and asked the nation to prepare for drastic actions like cancelling meetings as the disease was spreading its tentacle far beyond China.

The coronavirus outbreak has already handed a blow to the tech industry. The Mobile World Congress 2020 in Barcelona had to be cancelled after the disease spread.

The coronavirus death toll in mainland China has increased to 2,663 with 77,658 confirmed cases, health authorities said on Tuesday.

The National Health Commission said that it has received reports of 508 new cases and 71 deaths on Monday from 31 provincial-level regions of mainland China.