Georgia AG: 11th Circuit Should Lift Ban Against Online Retail Law

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should reverse a district court injunction against a Georgia anti-retail-theft law because the tech industry failed to show federal law preempts the measure, Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr (R) argued Wednesday (docket 24-12273). Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (Act 564) May 6. It requires that e-commerce platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist verify information about high-volume sellers to prevent online sales of stolen goods, with a specific focus on under-the-radar cash transactions. U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg in July granted NetChoice’s request for preliminary injunction. Grimberg found the Inform Consumers Act, a 2023 federal law that imposes similar verification requirements on high-volume sellers, preempts Act 564. The state measure conflicts with the federal law’s language limiting its applications to transactions that “only” take place through the online marketplace in question, the judge found. Carr argued NetChoice can’t show that it’s impossible for companies to comply with both the federal and state laws. The Georgia law “slightly differs” from the federal law when it broadens the category of “discrete sales.” Georgia’s “slightly broader monitoring obligations go beyond federal regulation, not against federal regulation,” he argued. “They are complementary, there is no conflict.” NetChoice said in July that Act 564 “violates federal law and the Supremacy Clause, smothering Georgia’s thriving businesses with red tape.”