Old Dominion News

Bipartisan proposals were recently introduced in the Virginia Legislature to protect online consumers against a growing wave of fake and stolen goods peddled on some of America’s largest online shopping platforms.

House Bill 888 and Senate Bill 341, the Online Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by Virginia Sen. George Barker (D-Alexandria) and Delegate Terry Kilgore (R-Gate City), aim to require sellers to disclose details of their company, including where it is based, to consumers.

“COVID has been the catalyst to an explosion of online shopping, and unfortunately we have also seen an increase in organized retail crime rings orchestrating smash-and-grab thefts across the country," Jodi Roth, director of government affairs for the Virginia Retail Federation, told Old Dominion News. "With that has come the ability for criminals and bad actors to have an outlet to sell stolen and fake goods on online marketplaces. The Virginia INFORM Act will cut off a major avenue for criminals. It will force them out of shadowy selling of fenced or faked goods online.”

The Online Consumer Protection Act requires high-volume third-party sellers to provide identifying information and contact information to the online marketplace. The last action on HB 888 was Jan. 25, when it was assigned to House subcommittee No. 4.

In September, The Wall Street Journal headlined a major investigation into a $45 billion stolen goods scheme where brick-and-mortar stores like CVS, Walgreens, Home Depot, Walmart and others are victims of sophisticated crime rings that steal merchandise and then sell it to resellers using online platforms like Amazon. These illegal sellers make millions of dollars, while, according to WSJ, Amazon is slow or unwilling to investigate its own platform for these alleged theft rings. These stolen goods, which are resold online, impact consumers across the country.

Supporters of these new consumer protections say action is needed now more than ever. According to data from Statista, e-commerce in the U.S. will amount to $469.2 billion in 2021, an increase from $431.6 billion in 2020.