California lawmakers fast-track bill that would require online sellers to verify their identity
California Democratic lawmakers are fast-tracking a bill aiming to crack down on resellers... California lawmakers are fast-tracking a bill that would require online sellers to verify their identity for high-volume sellers who advertise online but collect payments offline. The measure is part of a legislative package of 14 bills aimed at addressing retail theft, which the California Retailers Association has described as a crisis level. Critics argue that the measure infringes on business practices and infringes upon a federal law that requires online marketplaces like Amazon to verify high-profile sellers on their platforms to reduce the amount of goods stolen from brick-and-mortar stores and resold online. Once signed, the bills would take effect immediately.
Pubblicato : 11 mesi fa di Associated Press, By TRÂN NGUYỄN in Politics Tech
FILE - State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, speaks at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on June 13, 2022. Skinner authored a bill that would require marketplaces — like eBay and Nextdoor to start collecting bank accounts and tax IDs of high-volume sellers who advertise online but collect payment off the platforms. The measure is part of a legislative package of 14 bills to address the retail theft issue.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California bill that would require marketplaces like eBay and Nextdoor to start collecting bank accounts and tax identification numbers from high-volume sellers who advertise online but collect payments offline is being fast-tracked by Democratic lawmakers with committees voting on it Tuesday.
The measure is part of a legislative package of 14 bills to combat retail theft in the state. The California Retailers Association has said the issue has reached crisis levels, though it’s challenging to quantify because many stores don’t share their data.
“This is basically going to force businesses out of California,” said David Edmonson of TechNet, a technology advocacy group. “I imagine most sellers will have to think long and hard about whether or not they want to provide that information to the online marketplace just to be able to sell, you know, household products.”
In the case of OfferUp, its 11 million users in California would have to hand over their personal information before they could list something like a used coffee table or an old truck on the platform, Garnett said.
Opponents say the measure also runs contrary to a federal law that went into effect last July, which requires online marketplaces like Amazon to verify high-volume sellers on their platforms as part of an effort to tamp down the amount of goods being stolen from brick-and-mortar stores and resold online.
The federal law was negotiated to protect classified websites, and there was no legal loophole, said Carl Szabo, the general counsel of an Internet trade group NetChoice. The group, which represents companies including Facebook parent Meta and Etsy, filed a lawsuit against Georgia last week to halt the implementation of a state law that would establish similar requirements.
Democratic California state Sen. Nancy Skinner, who authored the measure, said law enforcement needs the tool to go after professional reseller schemes. Online marketplaces are also already collecting information from users through the privacy policy they have to agree to in order to use the platforms in the first place, she added.
“The only people they would have to get that information from are high-volume sellers, not every single person who uses their site,” she said.
Lawmakers are racing to deliver the bills to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a few weeks. Once signed, the bills would take effect immediately — a new get-tough-on-crime strategy in an election year seeking to ease the growing fears of voters while preserving progressive policies designed to keep people out of prison.