Bipartisan bill to address retail crime in Colorado advances

DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) - A bipartisan bill aiming to protect Coloradans from fraudulent online marketplace sellers advanced Tuesday in the House on Second Reading. Sponsors of the bill hope it will stop criminals from stealing products from physical stores and then reselling those items online to unsuspecting consumers.

In recent years there’s been an escalation of retail crime with violent smash-and-grab robberies now happening in broad daylight in major cities. Colorado lawmakers say they’re trying to put a stop to that type of theft before it even happens here.

"We have seen growing retail theft rings of criminal gangs that are targeting stores, stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise," said Colorado Springs Republican Representative Terri Carver, a sponsor of the bill. "This is a growing activity both in Colorado as well as across the nation, and what we're finding is that this huge volume of stolen goods is being fenced using fraudulent or anonymous identities in these online marketplaces."

If passed, HB22-1099, would require an online marketplace to require each high-volume third-party seller to disclose and have verified:

• The seller's bank account number;
• The seller's contact information; and
• The seller's business tax identification number or individual taxpayer identification number.

The marketplace also would have to require the seller to disclose to the consumer the identity of the seller, including:

• The full name of the seller;
• The physical address of the seller;
• Whether the high-volume third-party seller used a different seller to supply the consumer product to the consumer upon purchase; and
• If requested by the purchaser, information relating to any seller that supplied the consumer product to the purchaser, if the seller is different than the high-volume third-party seller listed on the product listing prior to purchase.

"It is just some basic information that's going to basically no longer allow them to sell using fraudulent identities or anonymously," said Rep. Carver. "We think will have a significant deterrent effect on these retail thefts that are going on. Other states that have put this type of legislation in place have seen a decrease in the thefts because this is a very fast turnover. It is not unusual when merchandise has been stolen from a store that it is appearing on the marketplaces for sale within an hour."

“This is a smart-on-crime bill that will make it harder for thieves to resell stolen goods online and it will reduce theft from Colorado businesses,” said Representative Dylan Roberts D-Avon. “This bill attacks the root cause of large-scale retail theft requiring online marketplaces to verify personal seller information which would knock down suspicious online sellers. This common-sense bill works to build a safer Colorado for everyone by protecting businesses from theft and consumers from purchasing stolen or counterfeit goods.”

Rep. Carver says she was inspired to write this bill after hearing from a Colorado Springs Home Depot store that told her it’s been a repeated target for criminals.

"This Home Depot invited me a couple of years ago to go down and hear from their staff about the retail criminal gangs that were hitting their store, the increased losses, and how they were trying to counter, but that it was a growing problem," said Rep. Carver. "After over an hour of hearing them describe what was going on, that's when I started working on legislation to try and address organized retail theft."

It’s important to note that these changes wouldn’t affect the average person trying to sell something on Facebook or Craigslist. The bill's requirements only apply to high-volume sellers and new merchandise — not used items from around a house.

There will be a recorded vote regarding this bill on Wednesday February 16. If it passes there, which Rep. Carver is confident it will, the bill will then head to the Senate.