POLITICO HUDDLE: Online Marketplaces Submit Letter on Competition Bill PRIORITIES

​A coalition of online marketplaces and resale sites, including eBay, ETSY, Poshmark and others are urging the China competition bill conference committee to scrap language the package on accountability for counterfeit goods and country of origin labeling. 

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The group, which calls itself the Coalition to Protect America’s Small Sellers (PASS) is urging conferees in a letter to ditch the SHOP SAFE Act, which would require online marketplaces to adopt a set of preventative measures or face greater liability for counterfeits purchased on their platforms.

• The letter is the latest move in a months-long lobbying fight between the SHOP SAFE Act and the INFORM Consumers Act, both of which aim to crack down on the sale of counterfeit goods online. 
• The coalition wants to lock in provisions from the INFORM Consumers Act, which would require online marketplaces to take steps to verify the identity of high-volume sellers and provide some of that information to customers.

Also asking: The group also wants to see major changes to the Country of Origin Labeling Act section, which they say as currently written “would make it virtually impossible to sell products online for millions of American small and microbusinesses.”

• They want an exemption for small sellers, a process for situations where the seller doesn’t know the origin and to limit liability of marketplaces.