3M announced plans to expand its global fight against fraud, counterfeiting and price-gouging of its PPE products and has established hotlines around the world to report suspected fraud.
3M announced plans to expand its global fight against fraud, counterfeiting and price-gouging of its PPE products and has established hotlines around the world to report suspected fraud.
The company has seen a massive surge in demand for PPE during the pandemic and says it has “launched an aggressive legal effort” to stop fraudulent sales, investigating more than 7,700 fraud reports globally and filing 19 lawsuits. It is also working with several major e-marketplace operators, including Amazon, to detect fraudulent and counterfeit respirator offers. The company has been awarded damages or received settlements in several cases, and donated all proceeds to COVID-19 charities.
3M has stressed that it has not and will not increase the prices of its respirators as a result of the pandemic and that it will continue to combat price-gouging.