2025 Governors and Legislatures (Projected)
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Key Takeaways:

  • In recent years, many communities have struggled to protect local retail stores from being targeted by organized retail thieves. 
  • Last December, President Biden signed the INFORM Consumers Act into law, which seeks to stop organized criminals from selling stolen goods on online marketplaces. It requires online marketplaces to verify and disclose the identity of high-volume third-party sellers to customers.
  • Following the enactment of the INFORM Act, state lawmakers turned their attention to passing tougher sentencing thresholds for individuals involved with organized retail crime. This year alone, 19 bills across nine states were signed into law.
  • Similarly, some states have created statewide task forces to explore this issue.  To date, 13 states have established a statewide task force to serve as a central clearinghouse for law enforcement, prosecutors, and businesses to work together on investigating retail crime.


This article is part of our latest series: Major Issue Trends in 2023: State Legislative Recap. In this series, our experts examine the high-level legislative trends they saw in the 2023 state sessions. In addition to discussing the most prevalent issues considered by state policymakers, they explore some of the more surprising emerging trends we noticed, plus what to expect in 2024 for many of these policy areas. The series will be released during November and December, with new articles each week. Explore the full series here, and be sure to sign up for our email list so you don’t miss out on any articles (check the “Blog Posts” box).

In recent years, many communities have struggled to protect local retail stores from being targeted by organized retail thieves. Last December, President Biden signed into law an omnibus spending package (US H.R. 2617) that included a provision, called the INFORM Consumers Act, that seeks to stop organized criminals from selling stolen goods on online marketplaces. The Act, which took effect in June, requires online marketplaces, like Amazon and eBay, to verify and disclose the identity of high-volume third-party sellers to customers. 

Following the enactment of the INFORM Act, state lawmakers turned their attention to passing tougher sentencing thresholds for individuals involved with organized retail crime (ORC). This year alone, 19 bills across nine states were signed into law that either increase penalties for retail offenders, allow law enforcement to aggregate property theft crimes across multiple jurisdictions, and/or provide additional funding and resources for law enforcement to investigate ORC cases. Bills that allow law enforcement and prosecutors to seek tougher sentences for those committing thefts across multiple jurisdictions were enacted in five states: Kansas (KS SB 174), Nevada (NV AB 50), New Mexico (NM HB 234), Oregon (OR SB 340), and Virginia (VA HB 1885 & VA SB 1396). 

Meanwhile, Oklahoma (OK SB 674) and Texas (TX HB 1826) joined the growing list of states that have created statewide task forces to investigate and prosecute suspects involved in organized retail crimes. To date, 13 states have established a statewide ORC task force to serve as a central clearinghouse for law enforcement, prosecutors, and businesses to work together on investigating retail crime. 

The good news for state lawmakers is that the effort to stop organized retail crime is fully embraced by both parties. But, as long as organized retail crime remains a major problem for retailers, expect more legislative activity in 2024 and beyond from states and cities.


Tracking State Retail Legislation 

MultiState’s team is actively identifying and tracking important retail legislation so that businesses and organizations have the information they need to navigate and effectively engage. If your organization would like to further track this and other retail issues, please contact us.