Top Retail CEOs Call on Congress to Curb Online Sale of Stolen Goods amid National Looting Sprees

Nick GilbertsonDecember 10, 2021

Twenty chief executive officers (CEOs) of leading retailers are calling on Congress to pass legislation to curb the sale of stolen goods online in the wake of “organized retail crime” across the United States.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association sent a letter to Congressional leadership on Thursday, which was signed by CEOs of Home Depot, Target, Best Buy, Nordstrom, and executives of many more retail titans.

The letter expresses that “Leading retailers are concerned about the growing impact organized retail crime is having on the communities we proudly serve” and urges Congress to pass the “Integrity, Notification and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces (INFORM) for Consumers Act.”

This May 19, 2021, photo shows The Home Depot location in Willow Grove, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

It reads in part:

As millions of Americans have undoubtedly seen on the news in recent weeks and months, retail establishments of all kinds have seen a significant uptick in organized crime in communities across the nation. While we constantly invest in people, policies, and innovative technology to deter theft, criminals are capitalizing on the anonymity of the Internet and the failure of certain marketplaces to verify their sellers. This trend has made retail businesses a target for increasing theft, hurt legitimate businesses who are forced to compete against unscrupulous sellers, and has greatly increased consumer exposure to unsafe and dangerous counterfeit products.

The letter focuses on the lack of “transparency” when thieves sell stolen goods in a second-hand market through a third-party online and its adverse effects on consumers.

“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 letter reads. “This lack of transparency on particular third-party marketplaces has allowed criminal activity to fester.”

.@Dodge_RILA: Retailers have made significant investments to combat organized retail crime, but as they note in today’s letter, criminals will continue these brazen thefts as long as they are able to anonymously sell their stolen goods via online marketplaces.

— RILA (@RILAtweets) December 9, 2021

The CEOs are calling on Congress to pass the INFORM Consumers Act:

The INFORM Consumers Act is a simple, bipartisan measure that will increase transparency online for all marketplaces, making it easier for consumers to identify exactly who they are buying from, and make it harder for criminal elements to hide behind fake screennames and false business information to fence illicit products while evading law enforcement. The legislation has unified retailers, consumer groups, manufacturers, law enforcement, and all those serious about stopping the sale of counterfeit and stolen goods sold online.

In October, leaders of the Consumers Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced legislation for the INFORM Consumers Act in the House of Representatives. “The Act directs online platforms that allow for third-party sellers of consumer products to verify the identity of high-volume third-party sellers, which will prevent organized retail crime,” according to a press release from Rep. Gus Bilirakis’s office.

A worker collects shopping carts in the parking lot of a Target store on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The Retail Industry Leaders Association’s push for the legislation comes during a nationwide uptick in smash-and-grab looting frenzies and flash-mob robberies. On Black Friday alone, retailers in multiple states were ransacked, Breitbart News reported.

Breitbart News reported:

Groups of looters ransacked shopping centers and retailers around the country throughout Thanksgiving week following last weekend’s full-fledged stealing bonanza in California’s Bay Area.A Sunglass Hut at the Del Monte shopping center in Monterey, California, was hit by a group of four on Friday, who stole an estimated $30,000 in sunglasses, police confirmed to KSBW.

Store Manager Shauna Weirich said the bandits were in and out within two minutes.

“They just knew what to do,” she said per KSBW. “No rhyme or reason for it they just knew what to do, when to do it and how to get the most out of what they were doing.”

The same day, a group of eight between the ages of 15 and 20, stole crowbars, hammers, and other tools from a Lakewood, California, Home Depot, according to Fox 11, citing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. They made off with an estimated $400 in tools.

“We tried to stop them,” Home Depot employee Luis Romo told FOX 11. “We closed the front entrance and they put their sledgehammers up and whoever got in the way, they were going to hurt them.”

…

Crimes were not isolated to the Golden State. Two mobs of looters ransacked multiple Best Buys in metro Minnesota on Friday night, according to the Star Tribune.

Both of the ransackings took place shortly after 8:00 p.m. Police say a mob of 20 to 30 people rampaged through the Burnsville Best Buy, while a group of ten to 12 that included both juveniles and adults hit the Maplewood store, according to the Star Tribune.

Police officers inspect a damaged Best Buy store after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism, on August 10, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Following the Best Buy lootings, a spokesperson for the company stated, “Retailers across the country are seeing spikes in crime… As an industry, we are working with local law enforcement and taking additional security precautions where it makes sense,” Breitbart News reported.

“We are also working at the federal level to pass a law that would make the online re-selling of these stolen goods much more difficult, materially reducing the incentive to commit the crimes in the first place,” the statement continued.