A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would require e-commerce retailers to disclose a product’s country of origin to consumers.
The Country of Origin Labeling Online Act, introduced by Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), is meant to promote American-made goods to online shoppers. E-commerce retailers are currently not held to the same disclosure requirements as in-person storefronts, which must list a product’s country of origin on the item itself. Baldwin and Vance’s proposal would apply those same labeling laws to online retailers.
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“The American people deserve to know where the products they buy are made, regardless of whether they’re shopping in-store or online,” Vance said in a statement. “Our legislation would close a legal loophole by extending current, commonsense labeling requirements to e-commerce. With this proposal, we can give American consumers the confidence that their online purchases support American workers and industry.”
“Whether we buy things online or in-store, Americans have a right to know if the product they are purchasing was made in America, by American workers,” Baldwin’s statement read. “I’ve heard from Made in Wisconsin businesses across the state who work hard to innovate and create new products, only to have cheaper, lower quality imitations sold online with no requirements to identify themselves as foreign-made.”
Additional co-sponsors include Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Mike Braun (R-IN). Four of the six senators attached to this bill are up for reelection in 2024, with two of those four being Democrats running in swing states. The two Democrats, Baldwin and Brown, face tough reelection fights despite being incumbents.
The other two not up for reelection are Braun and Vance. Braun is leaving after this term to run for Indiana governor. Vance won his seat in 2022.
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The last significant piece of legislation regulating e-commerce platforms to get through both chambers of Congress was passed in December of last year. That proposal targeted the online sale of counterfeit goods and was backed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
The two had introduced that bill in early 2021, though it did not pass both chambers until being included in the omnibus government funding deal that Democratic leadership passed in the House and Senate in December 2022.
