Businesses urge Congress to take action against stolen merchandise being sold online

Retail industry lobbies Congress to act on smash-and-grabs

Corporations have signed onto a letter urging Informed Consumers Act, to stop people from being able to sell stolen merchandise.

LOS ANGELES - Twenty-one corporations including CVS, Target, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Foot Locker, and more are saying enough is enough when it comes to the selling of stolen goods. The companies have sent a letter to Congress by the Retail Industry Leaders Association, saying they strongly support the INFORM Consumers Act and are pushing Congress to take action on it.

It’s all because of the uptick in crime we’ve been seeing. The flash mob smash-and-grabs, using things like sledgehammers to break windows, steal and fence the stolen goods online. The INFORM Act requires anyone selling goods in an online marketplace to use their real name, verifiable contact information, and tax ID numbers before they can start selling.

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Jason Brewer from the RILA says the goal is to make it much harder for people with stolen goods to sell online. Brewer says while lots of individuals are a part of flash mobs, in many cases, they’re selling to bigger fish who are warehousing the stolen goods then selling and distributing them. He says… it’s not just the small guy they’d like to stop. They’d like to take out the bigger fish that have set up this criminal business model.

"There's oftentimes a larger fence that is buying this product," Brewer said. "They're the ones that are building the warehouses of stolen product and are building that business selling online. So you essentially have mules who are doing some of the smashing and grabbing [and] you've got folks who that higher up the food chain that are doing the selling."

In California, the CHP-organized retail task force has busted some larger rings and found warehouses with stolen goods. Brewer says he hopes the law can be passed in the first couple of months of 2022.

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