INFORM Consumers Act Is Needed to Fight Organized Retail Crime
Thursday, September 08, 2022
Organized retail crime has rattled Rhode Island for years. Who could forget the infamous mafia ring operating out of the Decatur Social Club in 2016 that was found with more than $1,500 worth of stolen merchandise?
The economic ramifications of these crimes have been noticeably detrimental. In 2021 alone, the Retail Industry Leaders Association reported $213,959,136 in stolen merchandise, $47,990,000 tax loss, and 5,044 jobs lost. Unfortunately, organized retail theft operations are rarely isolated to one state. For example, the Middletown Rhode Island Police Department and agencies across New England dismantled a massive crime ring that had been terrorizing Staples stores spanning the East coast - from Massachusetts, to Rhode Island, to New Hampshire - for over three years.
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Rhode Island’s state legislature has already tried taking a swing at addressing the pervasive problem. This spring, H7676 was introduced to curb the crime wave by defining organized retail crime as a “concerted action of three or more people'' and by making it punishable by up to five years of imprisonment. Though commendable in its effort, this bill is just a band-aid fix to an issue that warrants a much more comprehensive solution. What Rhode Island and states across the country need is a uniform approach to disincentivizing these crimes from occurring in the first place. What we need is H.R. 5502, the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM Consumers) Act.
The INFORM Consumers Act would combat organized retail crime by making it more difficult to sell stolen goods online. By requiring online marketplaces to disclose the name, tax I.D., bank account information and contact information of certain high-volume, third-party sellers, the INFORM Consumers Act encourages even more transparency from the millions of people selling on online marketplaces. Losing their anonymity on the internet means that criminals will be left without their usual channels for peddling poached products, rendering large-scale robberies much less enticing.
Moreover, by creating a uniform selling standard, the INFORM Consumers Act would also save hardworking online sellers from navigating through a patchwork of state-by-state regulations. If this federal bill is not passed, states will continue to pass their own pieces of legislation with slightly different compliance language. This patchwork of state legislation would hinder the success of small online businesses without the required resources and time to track policies unique to each state they sell in. Ultimately, without a blanket standard, these various bills will end up creating more obstacles for honest entrepreneurs than the nefarious criminals they are intended to target.
Amid a nationwide recession and historically high inflation, Rhode Island’s small businesses simply can’t take much more economic strain. Thankfully, the INFORM Consumers Act is a commonsense solution with overwhelming bipartisan support that touts retail, tech, and law enforcement groups as champions of its passage; an anomaly in Washington, D.C. Given its resounding stamp of approval, come September, Congress must prioritize passing the INFORM Consumers Act, the best path forward to keeping sellers nationwide supported, safe, and successful.
Paul DeRoche
Paul retired after serving 36 yrs as the VP of Government Relations for the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. In that role he also served as the Executive Director for the Rhode Island Retail Federation.
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