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June 09, 2020

3M Files More COVID-Related Lawsuits

The company is cracking down on alleged fraud and price gouging tied to its in-demand N95 masks.

By  Christopher Ruvo

3M, parent company of Top 40 promotional products supplier 3M/Promotional Markets (asi/91240), is continuing its litigation crackdown on alleged scammers and price gougers who are accused of trying to illicitly profit from sales of the Minnesota-based multinational corporation’s N95 respirator masks.

N95 Mask

3M’s N95 masks have been in unprecedented, massive demand amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. That’s led some shifty operators to attempt various swindles around the product, prompting 3M to file 14 suits since January against the purported perpetrators.

The latest examples include a Monday, June 9 filing against a California-based third-party seller on Amazon.com that allegedly used the 3M trademark to sell $350,000 worth of masks at up to 20 times list prices.

KM Brothers Inc., which operated under several different names, “claimed to be reselling authentic N95 respirators, while actually selling damaged and fake goods at highly inflated prices,” 3M asserted. Following customer complaints, Amazon removed the KM Brothers advertisements from its shopping platform, the Star Tribune reported.

In a different lawsuit filed during the first week of June, 3M accused Ohio-based Preventative Wellness Consultants of lying about its connections to 3M in an attempt to get another company to act as its selling agent for 10 million 3M masks priced at $4.95 a piece.

3M called Preventative Wellness Consultants a “ringleader” in a price gouging scam that included RX2Live’s alleged attempt to sell masks to a California health care system at several times their list price. 3M said the Ohio firm attempted to conceal its role in the scheme by getting all parties involved in a mask sale to sign nondisclosure agreements. 3M has no relationship with Preventative Wellness or RX2Live.

To date, 3M’s litigation tied to N95 issues has resulted in “five temporary restraining orders and three preliminary injunction orders from courts across the country that put a stop to other defendants' unlawful and unethical profiteering from the pandemic,” according to the Star Tribune.

3M is also among the companies that has partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stem the flow of counterfeit face masks, coronavirus tests and other PPE equipment/medical supplies into the U.S.