A company behind the production of medical equipments, especially N95 masks is suing an Ontario business who has been falsely charging high price and proving false affiliations.
Minnesota based company 3M, which is popular for its production of the N95 masks claimed that the directors of Caonic Systems Inc. have registered a website under Shopify under the name of 3M-Health.com and have started selling the N95 masks.
3M further alleged that the company selling the masks were selling them for $17 which is five times the original price of the item. The case has been filed with Ontario Superior Court.
While 3M had asked Shopify to bring down the website, the alleged individuals behind the accounts, Zhiyu Pu and Harmen Mander have opened another website under the domain of www.tormenhealth.com and have consistently associated their affiliation with 3M on the social media platforms.
“After Shopify shut the second site, Caonic persisted, relaunching briefly on another platform,” stated a news released by 3M Canada.
When contacted, Mander said that they had only sold around 50 packs of the masks before the website was taken down.
“We are university students, when the virus started in January, we noticed that a lot of schools were still operating as usual. Classrooms were packed. Many students, including ourselves, were concerned about our own personal safety,” Mander exclaimed in a e-mail communication.
He further went on to say that his main goal has always been to help out the local businesses which are exactly what he did.
3M has requested the court to persuade Caonic to help them identify the location of any of the remaining respirators as well as the remaining sales and the customer information.
From there, 3M has assured that they are going to assist in further evaluating the authenticity of the masks. In case the company finds that the masks sold by Caonic are legitimately the N95 masks, they are going to work to return them to the healthcare workers.
“Once the respirators are recovered, 3M will pursue damages. 3M will donate any damages recovered to COVID-19-related non-profit organizations,” a statement registered.
The issue of these illegal selling of the masks have not just been limited to Canada. 3M said that they have registered similar issues and have raised legal actions in the United States too. The company also clarified that they have deployed an internal litigation team to further get an idea into the same.
Amidst it all, 3M has also urged the people to file a report on their website against any potential fraudulent acts, price gouging or even the counterfeit products.
The need for the N95 masks in Canada has experienced a massive push ever since the Covid-19 outbreak has started.
The company has been adamant in gauging any hiked price and illegal selling of their products on any kind of online platform that is not theirs.
