INFORM Consumers Act
US federal law requiring online marketplaces to verify high-volume third-party sellers and disclose their identity to consumers.
Aliases: INFORM Act, Integrity Notification and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces, 消费者信息透明法
What the law does
The INFORM Consumers Act, codified at 15 U.S.C. 45f, took effect on 27 June 2023. It targets organised retail crime and counterfeit sales by making seller identity visible. Two obligations sit on the marketplace, and one sits on the seller.
The marketplace must verify specified information for high-volume third-party sellers, and must provide a conspicuous mechanism for consumers to report suspicious activity on listings.
Who is a high-volume seller
A seller meets the definition in a 12-month period with 200 or more discrete consumer sales and 5,000 dollars or more in gross revenue on the marketplace. Once that threshold is crossed, the verification duties attach.
The information the platform must collect
- Name, and for an entity the government-issued identifier
- Business address, or the address used for returns
- Contact information, including a working email and phone
- For entities, a copy of a government-issued ID for a representative
- Bank account details for payout verification
- Tax identification number
The platform must also require sellers to keep that data current, at least annually, and to certify that it is accurate.
What consumers see
For high-volume sellers, the listing must display the seller's name, address and contact details, or a link that shows them. The display requirement is why many listings now show a business name and a phone number that were previously hidden behind a store name.
Consequences of non-compliance
A seller that fails to provide or update the information can have its listings suspended until the data is supplied. Providing false information is a separate violation. The platform faces enforcement by the FTC and by state attorneys general.
Interaction with other verification regimes
The INFORM Act overlaps in substance with platform seller verification programmes and with account health processes, but it is a legal obligation rather than a platform policy. It is unrelated to marketplace facilitator laws, which concern tax, and to brand registry, which is a brand protection programme rather than an identity requirement.
Practical preparation
Keep one authoritative entity record: legal name, registered address, contact details, tax number and bank account. Make sure it matches the platform account, the tax registrations and the bank. Discrepancies, especially between the entity name on the bank account and on the platform, are the usual cause of stuck verification.
Primary source: 15 U.S.C. 45f; FTC guidance on the INFORM Consumers Act.