A Philly company allegedly price-gouged consumers for N95 masks, AG Shapiro says

A Philadelphia company allegedly jacked up its prices for N95 masks as consumers rushed to protect themselves from the pandemic, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said Friday.

P&K Brothers LLC, and its majority owner, Phan Tran, price-gouged consumers when selling the masks in March through Amazon.com Inc.’s online marketplace, the attorney general claimed in a new lawsuit. The complaint, filed in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia, seeks restitution for 130 consumers who collectively paid more than $24,000 for the marked-up masks, as well as civil penalties.

“P&K and Tran have illegally used the health and economic crisis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic to charge Pennsylvania consumers and other consumers an outrageous price for a vital product that was in very short supply,” the complaint said.

Tran did not answer email or phone messages Friday afternoon.

It’s the latest lawsuit brought by Attorney General Josh Shapiro against companies accused of seeking excessive profits during a health emergency. In August, he sued another Philadelphia retailer that allegedly charged $75 per hand sanitizer bottle. Since the pandemic swept the nation in March, Shapiro’s office has fielded more than 5,800 complaints and returned thousands of dollars to Pennsylvanians who paid too much for items ranging from hand sanitizer to water, Shapiro said in a statement.

Pennsylvania bars companies from charging more than 20% above the average price recorded for an item the week before an emergency declaration. Gov. Tom Wolf declared a state of emergency on March 6 due to the pandemic.

P&K Brothers allegedly sold 3M brand N95 masks at prices that not only exceeded the market before the state of emergency, but also the price the retailer charged just three weeks earlier, according to the complaint. On Feb. 13, the firm charged Amazon users $43.00 for a 10-pack of 3M Model 8511 N95 respirator masks. On March 6, it charged between $160 and $200 for the same product, the suit said.

P&K Brothers took 130 orders for the masks on March 6, the same day Wolf declared the state of emergency, and March 19, the complaint said. The Attorney General’s Office contends the retailer could have canceled the March 6 orders after learning of the state of emergency.

Amazon, the online retail giant, gave the attorney general a tip about the March 6 order, according to the complaint. The company has said it monitors its marketplace and has removed offers for attempted price-gouging. Price hikes last spring were particularly egregious online, where third-party sellers using Amazon, Craigslist, Facebook, and other sites sold masks and hand sanitizer at sky-high levels.