REUTERS/Phil Noble The coronavirus outbreak has led to a shortage of protective masks and other medical supplies, leading some sellers to significantly increase prices. Amazon has been trying to prevent the practice on its platform, alerting sellers who may be in violation of its pricing policies, according to Wired. Most states in the US have "price gouging" laws which prevent businesses from taking of advantage of consumers by charging exorbitant amounts of money during emergencies. Authorities in countries such as China and Italy have also received complaints about price gouging since the outbreak, while Amazon has faced similar challenges before. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. As people across the world try to protect themselves from the Wuhan coronavirus, which has now claimed 2,700 lives and infected another 80,000, demand for medical supplies has spiked.