Indonesian e-commerce Tokopedia takes a strict action to ban exploitative face mask sellers in the country during COVID-19 outbreak.
Tokopedia’s VP of Corporate Communications, Nuraini Razak, stated that the company is ready to implement permanent bans for these sellers. Accordingly, this relates to the standard price for selling face masks and other medical needs during coronavirus pandemic.
“Tokopedia already permanently banned thousands of online shops and took down thousand products that are against our regulations. We will also continuously monitor our platform to ensure that the products on our marketplace do not violate the regulations,” Nuraini said.
Indonesia confirmed its first cases of coronavirus on the first week of March. Despite that, the country has confirmed 1.790 positive cases and 170 deaths, outnumbering the recovered patients.
Indifferent from other countries, Indonesian irresponsible sellers exploit fear to ridiculously mark up prices of medical needs. For that reason, Tokopedia invites the public to report these sellers on the platform.
“Should you find products that are against Indonesian regulations, you can report them by clicking ‘Report’ button at the top-right corner of every page,” she added.
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Banning Overpriced Face Mask Sellers, Tokopedia is Not Alone
Tokopedia is not the only Indonesian company to take drastic measures against overpriced face mask sellers. Other e-commerce companies such as Shopee and Bukalapak also join the fray.
Public Relations Lead at Shopee Indonesia, Aditya Maulana Noverdi, said that the company will give zero tolerance to these sellers. He added that the internal team will directly take actions if they find such sellers.
“So far, Shopee has taken actions against more than 3.000 online shops that violate the regulations such as overpricing the products and exploiting COVID-19 in the products’ title and description,” he explained.
Bukalapak, in addition, also conducts the same thing. Head of Corporate Communications at Bukalapak, Intan Wibisono, said the company will immediately take down seller accounts if they sell overpriced products.
“Bukalapak has strictly banned the sellers that exploit the pandemic to earn profits and prevent public from using medical products,” she said.
Also Read: WHO: Coronavirus Pandemic ‘Far from Over’ in Asia