About the Coalition

What We Believe

Consumers & Safety

• Stolen, counterfeit, expired and defective products, goods made with unsafe levels of chemical substances, and items that do not meet US quality and safety standards have flooded dominant online marketplaces.
• Dominant online marketplaces must protect consumers from bad actors seeking to defraud consumers into believing their products are legitimate, and most importantly, safe.
• Law enforcement needs the tools and resources to investigate, track and prosecute organized criminal activity that targets Main Street stores and unsuspecting consumers.  

Transparency & Protecting Legitimate Businesses

• The anonymity granted to third-party sellers on online marketplaces has allowed bad actors to hide in the shadows and deceive customers into purchasing counterfeit or stolen goods.
• It must be the responsibility of platforms to collect and verify basic identifying information from third-party sellers, and it should be clear to consumers exactly who they are buying from.
• The sale of counterfeit and fraudulent goods hammers legitimate businesses and costs the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars.  The marketplace today for common, everyday goods is flooded with counterfeit and stolen products designed to make money by deceiving consumers.  Absent reform, legitimate businesses and valued American brands employing millions of workers will continue to be harmed.

Accountability

• The claim by dominant online marketplaces that collecting and verifying basic seller information is too difficult, too complicated, or too burdensome is unfounded, as many third-party marketplace platforms employ some of the most sophisticated data scientists and logistics professionals in the world.
• Dominant online marketplaces make commissions and fees every time a stolen, counterfeit, or unsafe item is sold on one of these platforms. Big Tech cannot be left to solve a problem from which they currently generate immense and growing profits, Congress needs to act. 

Buy Safe America Solution

We will work with our partners and policymakers to: 

• Support verified seller standards to ensure legitimate small businesses can use the Internet to reach customers around the globe, and bad actors can be identified and stopped.  
• Ensure third-party sellers provide verified contact information to consumers.
• Push for greater resources and better collaboration among law enforcement to target sophisticated criminal rings and investigate the connection between organized retail crime (ORC) and other criminal activity.

Congress must pass legislation that requires online marketplaces to collect and verify basic information of third parties who sell products on their platforms. The Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM) Act does exactly that by requiring online marketplaces to obtain and verify straightforward information from third-party sellers' such as their government ID, tax ID, bank account information and contact information. It also requires third-party sellers to disclose their information to consumers.

How to Support

For more information on the Buy Safe America Coalition, please email info@buysafeamerica.org.