State lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would crackdown on illegal operations that pose as third-party sellers on online marketplaces.
The bill, SB184, would require high-volume sellers to provide more information to online retailers, such as Amazon or Facebook Marketplace, in order to prevent stolen or counterfeit products from being sold.
"This bill would protect consumers from buying stolen or counterfeit goods and it would help legitimate sellers online by preventing them from competing with bad actors," said Sen. Tina Maharath (D-Canal Winchester).
The bipartisan legislation would require online marketplaces to verify six components of a third-party seller: name, address, email, phone number, tax ID number, and back account information.
The sponsors of the bill, Sen. George Lang (R-West Chester) and Sen. Michael Rulli (R-Salem), say this is information already collected by online marketplaces and that the bill requires the platforms to verify the authenticity of that information.
"By requiring online marketplaces to verify basic information that reputable businesses readily provide, we can weed out criminals who sell counterfeit and stolen items online," said Lang and Rulli in joint testimony before the Senate Financial Institutions and Technology Committee.
The bill passed the Senate with unanimous support and now moves to the Ohio House.
Copyright 2021 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau. 9(MDA3NTY5MTc2MDEzMDY5NDU2MjQ3NDZhOA001))
