Goods stolen from businesses during weekend looting were found on online sales sites, according to the government. Meeting at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Vinted, Amazon, eBay, Leboncoin, Meta and TikTok are called upon to strengthen their controls and help investigators identify resellers. A first assessment of their actions is expected within 48 hours.
The looting which affected businesses in France on October 17 and 18 was continued on the internet. Advertisements offering goods suspected of coming from robbed stores have been spotted on sales platforms.
It is to prevent the flow of these goods that Serge Papin, Minister responsible for Trade and SMEs, and Anne Le Hénanff, Minister responsible for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology, brought together the platforms, with the services of the Ministries of the Interior and Justice. In a press release published this morning, Bercy indicates that a significant number of stolen items have been identified online, without specifying the volume.
The request to companies has two parts: preventing sales and assisting in investigations. An ad can in fact be used to sell stolen property, but also provide a lead to find the person who has it. Deleting it quickly therefore only solves part of the problem.
Spot ads before merchandise changes hands
The government is asking platforms to strengthen their monitoring and moderation, that is to say the examination of published offers and the withdrawal of those which pose a problem. The press release cites several warning signs: an abnormally low price, batches of new products, the presence of anti-theft devices or an explicit mention of theft.
The vigilance required also concerns purchase announcements. It is therefore also a question of examining the requests likely to encourage the sale of stolen goods.
What the platforms have committed to doing
Cooperate with authorities: identify and report potentially illicit content, transmit reports to investigators and share data useful for identifying receivers.
Strengthen controls: intensify monitoring of suspicious offers and purchase requests.
Warn consumers: inform them of the risks and sanctions incurred in the event of concealment.
Report results: regularly transmit a quantified report of the advertisements withdrawn, the measures taken and the reports sent to the authorities.
First return expected within 48 hours. This deadline concerns the assessment requested from the platforms, not a general deadline granted to remove the advertisements.
Deleting an advert alone does not allow you to find the seller
Companies already have controls in place, so Leboncoin tells RTL that all its announcements are subject to automated verification before publication, completed by moderation teams. Vinted told AFP that it had strengthened its controls and withdrawn offers likely to concern stolen goods, according to comments reported by Le Parisien.
For investigators, the work begins with the available information: content of the ad, date of publication, contact details associated with the account and, when the transaction goes through the service, elements relating to payment or shipping. Data which must be kept and communicated within the applicable legal framework.
A withdrawn advertisement must therefore be able to remain documented for the purposes of the investigation. It is then necessary to check who was using the account, what good was offered and where it came from. The account holder, the actual seller and the perpetrator of the theft are not necessarily the same person.
This distinction also counts for the qualification of concealment: article 321-1 of the penal code presupposes in particular knowledge of the criminal or tortious origin of the property. Thus a suspicious announcement justifies checks, but is not enough to establish the guilt of its author.
The merchant must be able to recognize his merchandise
The difficulty is particularly significant when a product does not have any distinctive sign. A serial number can make it possible to compare a computer offered for sale to a copy declared stolen; a photograph of a perfume bottle, on the other hand, generally does not allow it to be distinguished from other copies of the same model.
The information held by traders then becomes essential: inventory of losses, references, quantities, photographs and serial numbers where they exist. They can help spot an offer and verify its link to a flight. You still need to be able to transmit them quickly to the right person.
Professional federations could support businesses in this process, particularly those which do not have a detailed inventory or a dedicated team.
The platforms also do not all have access to the same information. A service that handles payment and shipping may have more insight into a transaction than a service used only to post a deal and exchange a phone number. Cooperation with authorities must take these differences into account.
Five ways to go beyond removing ads
The following measurements are avenues for analysis. They do not appear as decisions adopted in the government press release.
Compare offers to stolen inventory. Files sent by traders could make it possible to search for the products concerned among the advertisements, based on the references and serial numbers available. A pattern match would serve to guide the verification, without itself proving theft.
Check certain objects individually. For products that have a serial number, checking with a registry accessible to authorized actors could help identify a reported stolen item. The identifier would be transmitted privately.
Identify activity spread across multiple accounts. Reused photographs or the same payment details could reveal links between sellers within a platform, within the limits of legally usable data. A link would remain a clue to examine, and could also have a legitimate explanation.
Check before paying the money. When managing payment, a platform could trigger a review upon substantiated reporting before disbursement of revenue, if applicable rules permit. Any possible withholding should be justified, proportionate and contestable.
Facilitate the work of investigators. A file bringing together the advertisement, its photographs, its dates and the available transaction references could reduce the time necessary to reconstruct a sale, during a legally justified transmission.
A first assessment to measure the actions undertaken
To monitor this mobilization, the ministers activated the VigE-commerce cell. It must coordinate the competent ministerial services and monitor sales on the platforms. Companies will, for their part, have to submit an initial assessment within 48 hours, then report regularly on their actions.
This monitoring will make it possible to know how many advertisements have been removed and how many reports have been transmitted. Bercy does not specify the additional staff mobilized by the companies, nor the response times to investigators’ requests.
The number of withdrawals will of course constitute a first indicator. It remains that for the victim traders, the concrete outcome will also be measured by the goods found, the restitutions, but also the legal consequences which will be implemented.
