Reps. Balint, Velázquez Introduce Online Sellers Bill of Rights to Protect Independent Sellers

On Tuesday, Reps. Becca Balint (VT-AL), a leading member of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, and Nydia Velázquez (NY-7), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Small Business, introduced the Online Sellers Bill of Rights. This commonsense, targeted legislation will promote fair and open markets for independent online sellers, protect them from abuses by dominant online marketplaces like Amazon, and introduce greater transparency into platforms’ self-serving, unfair, and opaque rules and regulatory regimes.

Because of their massive and outsized market power, dominant e-commerce platforms like Amazon are able to suspend sellers, freeze or limit their inventory, withhold earnings, or bury their product listings with little explanation and zero accountability. At the end of the day, these sellers have no choice but to continue to do business with dominant platforms, regardless of how poorly they are treated. These marketplace’s abusive conduct can literally kill a small business overnight with little to no warning or meaningful ability to appeal. That is why the Online Sellers Bill of Rights is an urgent, necessary, and pro-business measure. Consumers will also benefit when independent sellers have the opportunity to grow and thrive.

ROCC is a proud endorser of the Online Sellers Bill of Rights, along with Open Markets Institute, Tech Oversight Project, Main Street Alliance, Public Citizen, American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR), and Small Business Majority. ROCC Policy Director Joe Van Wye was quoted in the Representatives’ press release: “Independent, third-party sellers are the backbone of a vibrant and competitive online marketplace. However, just a handful of dominant platforms abuse their market power to set up and then manipulate a system of vague, unpredictable, and ever-changing rules in ways that undermine these hardworking businesses’ ability to survive and grow, stifling innovation and entrepreneurship in this critical sector. We commend Reps. Balint and Velázquez for their leadership on this issue, and hope this commonsense legislation is quickly enacted.”