The SHOP SAFE Act is a typical piece of safety-themed legislation, in that it would accomplish something much more sinister than what its name promises. Far from protecting online shoppers from harmful products, this legislation—sponsored by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D–N.Y.) in the House and by Sen. Chris Coons (D–Del.) in the Senate—threatens to obliterate online marketplaces by subjecting them to increased liability.
Democrats are currently plotting to add the SHOP SAFE Act to the bipartisan Endless Frontier Act, a technology infrastructure bill that already passed in the Senate and could certainly become law sometime in the future. This would be a disaster; the SHOP SAFE Act has massive problems that would make it very difficult for smaller online marketplaces to survive. While the bill is undoubtedly intended to seize on Congress's anti–Big Tech fervor, the likely outcome of its passage would be the solidification of Amazon's dominance.
