New US legislation introduced to protect consumers online

According to a press release, US Congresswoman and Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, Jan Schakowsky, has introduced legislation to stem the sale of stolen, counterfeit, and dangerous consumer products online by requiring verification of third party sellers on online retail marketplaces. The proposed bill named the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers (INFORM Consumers) Act seeks to direct online platforms that allow third party sellers of consumer products to authenticate the identity of high volume third party sellers. The objective of the law is to allow consumers to ‘see basic identification and contact information for high volume third party sellers of consumer products on online marketplaces’ in order to prevent organised retail crime.