Making the case for immediate passage of the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act

Over the past year, Congress has taken promising — but still incomplete — steps toward addressing the growing national threat of organized retail crime. ORC is not a talking point or a public relations buzzword; it is a sophisticated criminal enterprise defined by large-scale theft, interstate logistics and illicit financial networks designed to convert stolen goods into profit. 

These schemes jeopardize retail workers, customers, supply chain partners and the economic safety of communities across the nation. Congress has done the early work. Now it must finish the job. Passing the bipartisan Combating Organized Retail Crime Act is the only viable federal path to disrupting these increasingly dangerous criminal organizations. 

It is important to be clear about what ORC is — and is not. Organized retail crime is fundamentally different from shoplifting. Shoplifting is typically an opportunistic, individual act driven by immediate need. ORC, by contrast, involves coordinated criminal networks stealing bulk quantities of merchandise from stores and across the supply chain, increasingly through complex financial fraud schemes. 

These criminals steal from stores repeatedly, often invoking threats or acts of violence against workers and customers. They conduct sophisticated thefts along rail and roadways, and use cybercriminal activities to impersonate brokers, create false bills of lading and divert entire trucks from their legitimate destination. These groups orchestrate complex gift card, return and counterfeit schemes designed to attain funds from retailers and consumers — funds used to launder goods or to support more nefarious criminal activity, including drugs, guns and human trafficking. 

Waiting for passage allows criminals to prosper 

As CORCA sits stagnant in Congress, retailers, law enforcement agencies and our communities continue to learn of the reach and magnitude of ORC groups, a reach that often spans state and national borders. 

Some recent situations include an Armenian organized crime ring charged with stealing more than $83 million in Amazon cargo, using fake trucking carriers to divert high-value loads of electronics and appliances; the largest theft ring in The Home Depot company history, responsible for over 600 thefts at 71 stores with losses exceeding $10 million across multiple Southern California counties; a nationwide surge in cargo theft, with the U.S. supply chain suffering nearly $455 million in reported losses, driven by sophisticated impersonation and digital freight fraud that allow criminals to steal entire truckloads of goods; and nationwide gift card schemes tied to fentanyl and human trafficking, as Chinese gangs gain millions preying on retailers and consumers in large-scale gift card tampering. 

The good news is that Congress recognizes this growing threat. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (S.1404 / H.R.2853) was reintroduced on a bipartisan, bicameral basis last year and has now secured more than 250 co-sponsors. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings with testimony from retailers, transportation providers and law enforcement leaders. They all underscored the same point: Current organized retail crime enforcement is fragmented, jurisdictionally inconsistent and wholly inadequate for fighting multistate, digitally enabled crime rings. 

CORCA offers a practical federal solution. By establishing an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center, the bill aligns investigative resources, enhances interagency information sharing, and enables state and local law enforcement to “connect the dots” that span borders — linking store-level theft crews to warehouse diversions, online resale operations and the complex financial flows that sustain these enterprises. 

How Congress can help retailers and our communities 

The House Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan markup of CORCA in January was an important milestone — but it must be followed, without delay, by votes in both chambers. 

NRF, on behalf of our membership and the broader retail industry, urges both chambers to take steps before the August recess to pass CORCA. The bill is primed and ready for a vote on the House floor. Once the bill passes the House, the Senate could immediately take it up and pass it, sending it directly to the president’s desk for signature. 

The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act enjoys rare, overwhelming bipartisan support and is backed by retailers, transportation and supply chain partners, law enforcement and prosecutors nationwide. The threat is real and escalating. Congress has studied the problem, heard the concerns and acknowledged the urgency. 

We thank Congress for recognizing the severity of this issue. We urge it to now pass CORCA, and send it to the president’s desk for signature.