By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice
An inconceivable quantity of goods are bought and sold daily by Coloradans online, and a measure passed out of the Colorado Senate on Monday aims to protect Coloradans from purchasing any goods which may be stolen.
Senate Bill 25-070, by El Paso County Republican Sen. Larry Liston and Eagle County Democrat Sen. Dylan Roberts, cleared a 28-3 vote on final reading in the upper chamber. It would require the disclosure, to consumers, of product listings of a high-volume nature by sellers, and require development of a reporting mechanism to the online marketplace.
It lost the support of at least one Republican lawmaker after that.
“This is one of those bills where I wish I could split my vote,” said Sen. Mark Baisley. “The first part, I like immensely. It appropriately addresses a problem that retail is experiencing. I wish it would have stopped at that point, so that I could be fully behind it.”
In a 2024 study by Capital One, Coloradans were found to make $13.04 billion in annual online purchases. The study additionally found Coloradans to be 1.21% more likely to shop online and 6.89% more likely than the average American to shop online. Online retailers collect an estimated $378.3 million annually from the Colorado retail tax.
The measure would also require an online marketplace to alert law enforcement of the sale of stolen goods through establishing a mechanism to communicate through “a link…online portal, or point of contact” and would also require “written policies to monitor product listings to detect and prevent organized retail crime.”
“The requirements on industry, I believe, should have been placed on law enforcement alone,” Baisley said. “I do think we need to address this matter and do so appropriately.”
He was joined in opposition of the bill by Douglas County Republican Sen. John Carson and Sterling Republican Sen. Byron Pelton. The measure will be carried by Republican Rep. Ryan Armagost in the Colorado House.