We Know Who They Are. We Still Cannot Reach Them.
The INFORM Consumers Act made online marketplaces verify who their high-volume sellers are. That was a real step. But knowing a seller's name and bank account is not the same as having a party a harmed American business can reach, sue, or collect from. The identity is verified. The accountability still does not exist.
What the INFORM Consumers Act Is
The INFORM Consumers Act — the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act, codified at 15 U.S.C. §45f — took effect on June 27, 2023. It requires online marketplaces to collect, verify, and in some cases disclose identifying information about their “high-volume third party sellers.”
A high-volume third party seller is one that, in any continuous 12-month period during the previous 24 months, made 200 or more sales and took in at least $5,000 in gross revenue on the marketplace. For those sellers, the marketplace must collect and verify a bank account, a government-issued ID, a business tax ID, and contact information. For the very highest-volume sellers ($20,000 or more in annual gross revenue), the marketplace must also disclose the seller’s name, physical address, and contact information to consumers.
In plain terms: the law was built to answer one question — who is this seller? And on that narrow question, it works. The problem is the question it does not answer.
What It Gets Right
AEBA supports the INFORM Act. It ended the era in which a marketplace could host an entirely anonymous seller. Three things it genuinely accomplishes:
Identity is collected
Marketplaces must obtain and verify real ID, tax ID, and bank details for high-volume sellers, not just an email address.
Consumers get a name
The highest-volume sellers must be shown to shoppers by name, address, and contact, ending the fully faceless storefront.
Non-compliance has a cost
Marketplaces that fail to verify, or that keep non-compliant sellers, face FTC and state-AG penalties of up to $53,088 per violation.
Why It Falls Short: The Accountability Gap
The INFORM Act verifies identity. It does almost nothing to make a verified seller reachable or liable. Three gaps explain why a fully compliant seller can still harm an American business and walk away.
1
A verified identity is not a reachable party
The Act makes a marketplace collect a seller's ID and bank account. It does not require that seller to keep any assets in the United States, to maintain a registered agent for service of process, or to post a bond. A name and a bank account abroad cannot be served, sued, or collected against in a U.S. court. Knowing who they are does not make them reachable.
2
There is no private right of action
Only the FTC and state attorneys general can enforce the Act, and the liability falls on the marketplace, not the seller. A harmed American competitor cannot sue the foreign seller under the Act. The FTC's own guidance tells an injured business to report the conduct to the marketplace and to the FTC, and hope. That is not a remedy.
3
Verify, suspend, reopen
A seller who fails to comply is suspended, not stopped. Because nothing ties a real, accountable U.S. party to the account, a suspended or sued seller can register a new entity and reopen under a new storefront. Verification is a snapshot at onboarding; it does not survive the vanish-and-reopen cycle.
What It Requires vs. What It Leaves Open
Line by line, the Act is a verification statute with an accountability hole running through the middle of it.
What the INFORM Act requires
What it leaves open
Marketplaces must collect and verify a high-volume seller's government ID, business tax ID, and bank account.
Nothing requires that seller to keep any assets, a registered agent, or any legal presence in the United States.
Marketplaces must disclose the name, physical address, and contact information of the highest-volume sellers to consumers.
A name and an address abroad is not a party a U.S. court can reach, or a judgment can collect against.
Marketplaces must suspend sellers who fail to provide or certify their required information.
A suspended seller can register a new entity and reopen under a new storefront the next day.
The FTC and state attorneys general enforce it, with penalties on the marketplace of up to $53,088 per violation.
There is no private right of action. A harmed American competitor, or a harmed consumer, cannot sue the seller under the Act at all.
It is a consumer-protection and anti-counterfeiting traceability law aimed at stolen and counterfeit goods.
It says nothing about competitive harm, tax and duty evasion, or any liability owed to the American businesses these sellers undercut.
“The INFORM Consumers Act tells a marketplace to learn a seller’s name and bank account. It never requires that seller to be someone an injured American business can actually reach. Identity is verified; the accountability is missing.”
The result is visible in court. Roughly seven in ten intellectual-property suits against these sellers end in default — the seller never appears — because there is no real, reachable party behind the verified identity. The account is closed and reopened under a new name. The identity was known the whole time. It changed nothing.
What Actually Closes the Gap
The fix is to add what the INFORM Act left out: not more verification, but reachability and liability — a real, accountable, collectible U.S. party behind every high-volume seller and every import.
A reachable U.S. presence
Require a high-volume foreign seller to maintain a registered agent for service of process, so a harmed party can actually serve and sue it in the United States.
A bond or tangible U.S. assets
Require the responsible party to be collectible, not just named. Executive Order 14411 begins this on the customs side by requiring importers of record to post a bond or hold tangible U.S. assets.
Reach the beneficial owner
A U.S. name on paper cannot be a shield. Enforcement and liability must reach the real party behind a strawman entity, with beneficial-ownership disclosure.
A remedy for the harmed business
Give American businesses harmed by a seller's unlawful conduct standing to be made whole, rather than only a portal to report and hope. Verification should come with a path to recover.