- California AG Rob Bonta, along with brick-and-mortar retailers and online marketplaces, adopted an agreement aimed at combatting organized retail crime (ORC).
- The agreement explains that ORC has increased in California in recent years, threatening public safety and harming the economy. The agreement attempts to advance information-sharing and collaboration between retailers who may be the targets of theft, online marketplaces where the stolen goods may be resold for financial gain, and law enforcement.
- Under the terms of the agreement, the signatory retailers with brick-and-mortar locations agreed to a number of commitments, including filing detailed police reports for all incidents of theft and retaining video of thefts to aid in prosecution. The online marketplaces also agreed to a number of commitments, including maintaining policies that clearly prohibit the sales of stolen goods and punish violators, and proactively ensuring the prevention and detection of listings for the sale of stolen goods. The retailers and online marketplaces both agreed to communicate with each other to stay up to date on ORC trends.
- We covered the topic of organized retail crime in a recent State AG Pulse podcast episode, Wrangling Acronyms: SAGs, ORC and AI, where we talked in more detail about actions being taken by state AGs in this emerging area.