Legal action over bogus products and inflated prices. 

 

3M has taken legal action on several fronts to keep ‘price gougers’ from profiting on sales of its N95 face masks during the COVID-19 crisis.

 

The global company has targeted a third-party seller on Amazon.com for using its trademark to sell US$350,000 worth of masks at up to 20 times list prices.

 

KM Brothers Inc., a California company trading under several different business names, "claimed to be reselling authentic N95 respirators, while actually selling damaged and fake goods at highly inflated prices," 3M said.

 

The action against KM Brothers came on the heels of a different suit filed in recent weeks in which 3M alleged that an Ohio company lied about ties to 3M to convince another business to act as its selling agent for 10 million 3M masks at US$4.95 apiece. 

 

After customer complaints, Amazon pulled the KM Brothers ads from its online shopping forum.

 

In a statement to customers, 3M said:

 

Since January, 3M has doubled production of N95 respirators to 1.1 billion per year at its global manufacturing facilities, including in the US, Asia and Europe. 3M will double its capacity again to 2 billion per year within the next 12 months.

 

In this crisis 3M is experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand for N95 respirators, and demand will outpace supply for the foreseeable future. As we urgently work to expand our own production, we are also working with governments and others to prioritize, triage and redirect supplies to serve the most critical needs and areas. 3M is also partnering with other companies on a range of innovative solutions to protect healthcare workers and first responders.

 

3M is working with law enforcement agencies around the world to aggressively pursue third parties that seek to take advantage of this crisis.