Shop SAFE Spoils America COMPETES

Will DuffieldEarlier this week the House passedAmerica COMPETES, a companion bill to the Senate ’s science and technology package. While the Senate bill focuses on competitiveness with China, America COMPETES is a more of a grab bag. The bill ’s 2,912 pages cover everything from research funding to shark fin sales. Most of the bill’s spending provisions can be seen as somehow bolstering American competitiveness, albeit inefficiently. However, it also includes sweeping e‑commerce regulations that create new liabilities and filtering expectations for eBay, Etsy, and other online marketplaces. These regulations will hobble, not help, America’s ability to compete.Section 80103 of America COMPETES, titled “Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in Ecommerce,” is Sen. Chris Coons (D‑DE) Shop SAFE Act. When Shop SAFE went through markup in September other members expressed concerns about its breadth and potentially anticompetitive effects. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D‑CA) has wo rried it will “raise the administrative burdens and transaction costs of many small businesses and small sellers.” Despite these concerns, Shop SAFE was included in America COMPETES unchanged. If survives reconciliation, its effects on American e‑commerce will illustrate how one bad apple can spoil the bunch.Shop SAFE is intended to discourage the sale of counterfeit products in online marketplaces. To do this, the bill creates a new contributory tr...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs