Senate panel advances marketplace-transparency bill requiring seller contact data; retailers and grocers back the measure

Senator Dizmang introduced SB 470 as a consumer-protection and enforcement measure that requires marketplace facilitators to collect and validate six basic data points from third-party sellers—name, address, email, phone number, tax ID and bank account—and to display a clickable link with contact information for sellers that meet the statutory thresholds. "It requires 6 basic pieces of information that every business already has," the sponsor said.

Steve Good, executive director of the Arkansas Grocers and Retail Merchants Association, testified the bill would help law enforcement and the Attorney General locate sellers who place counterfeit, expired or stolen goods on marketplaces. Good detailed anecdotal examples of counterfeit toys and hoarded baby formula showing up on online marketplaces and argued the change would protect consumers and small legitimate businesses.

Michael Lindsey, director of public affairs and government relations for Walmart, said Walmart supports SB 470 and described how organized retail-theft incidents result in goods being resold online. "This bill requires seller disclosure and verification requirements ... are the best practices that all marketplaces should follow," Lindsey said, citing federal estimates of large-scale counterfeit trade.

Committee members probed enforcement and tracking capabilities, whether barcodes or in-store systems could help trace stolen goods, and whether the bill would help identify the scale of untaxed online sales. Witnesses and the sponsor said the bill is a tool for the Attorney General and law enforcement and could support other enforcement or tax-collection efforts, but they acknowledged technical limits in tracing individual stolen items.

The committee moved and passed SB 470 by voice vote.