(Bloomberg) — The chief executive officers of companies including Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. called on Congress to approve legislation aimed at forcing online marketplaces to beef up measures designed to fight the sale of stolen or counterfeit goods.
Passage of the so-called Inform Consumers Act would help retailers and law enforcement crack down on a “significant uptick” in organized theft, the Retail Industry Leaders Association said in a letter Thursday to Congressional leaders. The CEOs of Home Depot Inc., Levi Strauss & Co. and more than a dozen other companies also signed their names in support.
“In the current environment, criminal networks and unscrupulous businesses have exploited a system that protects their anonymity to sell unsafe, stolen, or counterfeit products with little legal recourse,” the group and the CEOs said in the letter. “This lack of transparency on particular third-party marketplaces has allowed criminal activity to fester.”
The retail leaders are stepping up a long-running lobbying campaign in favor of the legislation after a month in which stores from California to Minnesota were hit by flash mob-style thefts that generated national headlines, and Best Buy said organized criminals were hurting profit. The Inform Consumers Act would require digital marketplaces to collect information such as government ID, tax ID and bank account details from some third-party sellers.
Read more: Retailers sound the alarm on organized theft
Amazon.com Inc. announced in October that it supports the version of the act in the U.S. House of Representatives, saying the measure would establish a federal standard and prevent “an unworkable patchwork of state-level regulations.”
The e-commerce giant criticized the retailers’ group for pushing federal and state legislation that would “favor large brick-and-mortar retailers at the expense of small businesses that sell online.”
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