US internet businesses pushed to enforce policies against selling pilfered goods

Online merchants such as Amazon, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace have been encouraged by US Representative Abigail Spanberger to provide information about their efforts to prevent the resale of stolen items on their platforms.
According to projections from the US Department of Homeland Security, organized retail crime (ORC) will result in increased costs for the average American family of more than $500 annually.

Robust criminal groups pilfer commodities from physical stores, railroads, motor carriers, ports, and intermodal networks. They then resale the stolen goods for a profit, frequently on unaffiliated marketplaces.

In order to sell these illegal items with some secrecy, criminals frequently take advantage of e-commerce sites. They also set up front companies on these platforms to promote stolen goods for resale.

Spanberger compelled the CEOs of Facebook, eBay, and Amazon, Andy Jassy, and Mark Zuckerberg, to produce an estimate of the average yearly sales and profit margin obtained by third parties selling stolen items on their platforms.

The congresswoman also asked the CEOs to provide specifics about their plans for collecting and storing customer complaint data, as well as their follow-up enforcement activities.

Spanberger also asked for details on the measures these leaders are doing to improve their anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) initiatives, as well as how they plan to disclose supply chain theft on their platforms.

Because supply chain theft and ORC result in higher security costs, labor costs, repairs and replacements, and lost revenue, they have a negative financial impact on consumers, businesses, and our economy. Tax income is then reduced as a result of lost profit. Not adding missed sales taxes, ORC specifically costs the federal and state governments close to $15 billion in lost tax income. In the end, this hurts the customer,” Spanberger stated in a statement.

The Virginia Retail Federation, which represents companies throughout Virginia’s retail supply chain, backs the initiative spearheaded by Spanberger.

In response to the rise in supply chain theft and fraud, Spanberger also supported the Safeguarding our Supply Chains Act.

By creating a Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center within Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) at the US Department of Homeland Security and a Supply Chain and Theft Task Force headed by HSI and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, this bipartisan legislation would specifically improve federal coordination to help crack down on supply chain theft.

 

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