 On June 2, the Coalition to Protect America's Small Sellers (PASS) submitted a letter to key leaders of the Bipartisan Innovation Act Conference Committee outlining legislative priorities for the finalized competition measure. As the Committee works to reconcile differences between the America COMPETES Act and USICA, PASS has identified three issues for the committee's consideration: (1) removal of the SHOP SAFE Act - Section 80103 (America COMPETES); (2) inclusion of the INFORM Consumers Act - Section 20213 (America COMPETES); and (3) removal of the Country of Origin Labeling Act - Section 2511 (USICA).
 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.
 One of the big-ticket legislative items this summer is USICA, the massive legislative package aimed at boosting America’s competitiveness with China in high-tech research and manufacturing. This bill is already the subject of a ton of lobbying by everyone from Big Tech companies to pet interests – yes, animal lobbyists – who are looking to influence the international trade of pets.
 A group of online marketplaces has written a letter to several lawmakers in hopes of urging them to tweak the language of new China competition bills. The Coalition to Protect America’s Small Sellers (PASS) in its letter sent Thursday the expressed its concern over a set of bills that it said will “harm consumers, disadvantage medium and smaller-sized businesses, and disrupt thousands of legitimate websites.”
 For Immediate Release
May 3, 2022 Washington, DC – Today, the Buy Safe America Coalition, the Coalition to Protect America’s Small Sellers, and the National Association of Manufacturers representing a diverse group of retailers, manufacturers, law enforcement, third-party marketplaces, and eCommerce platforms collectively supporting efforts to combat organized retail crime and protect consumers and communities from the sale of counterfeit and stolen goods sent a letter urging Congressional leadership to include the INFORM Consumers Act in the final Bipartisan Innovation Act package. Various members of the the Coalition to Protect America's Small Sellers (PASS Coalition) have offered commentary on why the PASS Coalition members eBay, Etsy, and Mercari have each weighed in on why the SHOP SAFE Act is a bad idea for their seller communities.
On March 8, the Coalition to Protect America's Small Sellers (PASS Coalition) joined 37 stakeholder partners in a letter to congressional leadership requesting the removal of the SHOP SAFE Act (H.R. 5374) from the conference legislation between the Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the House’s America COMPETES Act. The groups warned that, as currently written, the SHOP SAFE Act could impose unreasonable regulations on electronic commerce companies to prevent the sale of counterfeit products. “Congress should not shoehorn this kind of dramatic policy change into the final compromise between USICA and America COMPETES or other ‘must-pass legislation,” the letter states. “Allowing SHOP SAFE to proceed, as-is and tacked-on to unrelated legislation, would set a dangerous precedent for policymaking that is fundamentally connected to our economy, innovation, competition, and free speech.”
|
