Trade with masks: Amazon must pay 75,000 euros fine

Die Kombination aus Schutzmaske und Smartphone werden uns wohl auch noch durch die (hoffentlich) letzten Monate der Pandemie bringen.

Mail-order giant Amazon has been ordered to pay a fine of 75,000 euros by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. A medium-sized company had filed a lawsuit against the retailer for offering FFP2 masks without certification – and has now been proven right.

Amazon fined 75,000 euros

Since 2020, the legal dispute lasted, the Masecori GmbH against the mail order company Amazon EU Sarl with headquarters in Luxembourg and Germany sought. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has now ruled in favor of the medium-sized company. Amazon must pay an administrative fine of 75,000 euros.

The reason: Amazon had offered insufficiently certified FFP2 and KN95 protective masks and, after deleting the offending products, continued to offer masks with insufficient or no certification.

According to the blog Wortfliter.de, Masecori GmbH obtained an injunction. Amazon had not responded to a warning issued, which is why Thorsten Duffner, managing director of Masecori GmbH, obtained a preliminary injunction.

“Our intention was to establish fair competition. Amazon was not exempt from this,” said Duffner. A judgment with symbolic character that shows that even a large company like Amazon has to answer to German courts.

Also food insufficiently marked

As Duffner explains in an interview with Golem.de, however, it is not only FFP2 masks that are affected by insufficient labeling. His company also sells foodstuffs, for which there are many legal requirements to be observed. “On Amazon, almost every third food item is faulty.”

Numerous food offers on Amazon would be missing important information on allergens or the best-before date, which are mandatory by law. For Amazon, it would be an easy task to request the necessary information from the suppliers and to mark it.

“We have already been warned about this and even had to pay a fine, although we were able to prove that we had provided Amazon with all the necessary data,” continues Duffner. Golem.de has now asked Amazon for a statement but has not yet received a response.