The Seattle Times reports that "more than a dozen trade groups are launching a new coalition aimed at forcing e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com to take stronger measures to fight stolen or counterfeit goods sold on their platforms.
"The industry associations, which represent Walmart, Target, and Best Buy among other companies, announced on Friday they are founding the Buy Safe America Coalition to back legislation that would require digital marketplaces to verify information about third-party merchants."
According to the story, "Together they are backing the so-called INFORM Consumers Act, which would require digital marketplaces to collect information about some third-party sellers such as their government ID, tax ID and bank account details. The legislation also would direct companies to disclose to shoppers their high-volume sellers’ names, phone numbers, business addresses and emails.
"The bill defines high-volume sellers as firms that make 200 or more sales in a year amounting to $5,000 or more."
- KC's View:
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The technology exists to track and trace every product … it just requires investment of time and money and energy. But I think that companies such as Amazon would serve their own best interests - not to mention those of their customers - by making this commitment to objective third-party systems that can fight this problem.
