THE American E-Commerce Business Alliance (AEBA)

ENSURING A
FAIR & ROBUST U.S.
E-COMMERCE MARKET

Protecting American Businesses. Strengthening Our Economy. Securing Our Future.

American E-Commerce Business Alliance (AEBA)
ABOUT AEBA

America’s vibrant e-commerce industry is projected to surpass $1.3 trillion in annual revenue by 2025, accounting for over 17% of total retail sales and more than 4% of U.S. GDP. Yet, American e-commerce businesses face significant threats due to unfair competition from foreign businesses exploiting U.S. laws and marketplaces—resulting in the destruction of countless American small businesses and hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

The American E-Commerce Business Alliance (AEBA), a project of the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), is committed to ensuring a fair, robust, and secure e-commerce environment in the United States.   AEBA advocates for critical policy reforms that level the playing field for American entrepreneurs and businesses, strengthen our domestic market, and protect American consumers from unscrupulous foreign practices.

WHY AEBA?

A powerful alliance advocating
for American economic strength

Currently, U.S. tax, trade, and customs policies discriminate against American e-commerce businesses, inadvertently supporting offshore competitors and threatening the survival of domestic brands. Online marketplaces increasingly favor foreign—often Chinese—businesses, causing severe economic, regulatory, and national security risks. AEBA seeks to change this, advocating for policies that level the playing field and support American entrepreneurs.

DIRECT ADVOCACY

Your voice represented with policymakers in the administration and Congress.

MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Receive comprehensive industry and economic analyses on e-commerce market conditions and threats.

POLICY INFLUENCE

Participate in developing actionable goals to protect your business and industry.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

Have your concerns spotlighted through CPA’s extensive media relationships, influencing national dialogue.

ACCESS & VISIBILITY

Connect directly with key legislative and executive decision-makers at CPA’s Annual Conference and Prosperity Summit.

ACCREDITATION

Officially brand your business as a member of AEBA through your website and marketing materials.

WHY CHOOSE AEBA

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS
& MONTHLY DUES

By becoming a member of AEBA, you join a powerful alliance advocating for policies that support American economic strength, consumer safety, innovation protection, and national security.

AEBA membership levels are set according to the size of your organization.

  • MICRO

    Under $100K in annual revenue: $5/mo.

  • SMALL

    $100K - $500K in annual revenue: $20/mo.

  • MEDIUM

    $500K - $1M in annual revenue: $50/mo.

  • LARGE

    $1M - $5M in annual revenue: $200/mo.

  • ENTERPRISE

    $5M - $50M in annual revenue: $500/mo.

  • MEGA BRANDS

    $50M+ in annual revenue: $1,000/mo.

A FAIR & ROBUST AMERICAN E-COMMERCE MARKET

AEBA'S POLICY PLATFORM

AEBA believes that Americans should be able to shop online with the same confidence as when they walk into a store.

Unfortunately, overarching problems in customs law as well as ongoing challenges with the legal responsibilities of online marketplace platforms are undermining consumer confidence in the U.S. e-commerce market:

Customs Problems: The first problem is that almost uniquely among nations, the United States not only permits unaccountable, judgment-proof overseas vendors ship directly to U.S. consumers with no meaningful security or fees, but it actually subsidizes this outcome. This is why more than half of the sellers on Amazon.com are Chinese businesses. When sellers can retail in our market without consequence for breaking the rules, chaos results. To be clear, Americans have always been able to order merchandise from an overseas vendor, but prior to 1995, when they did so, a customs officer would individually examine that merchandise and catalog it, and the purchaser would pay an appropriate fee to cover that service. The combined effect of this necessary process was that purchases from overseas vendors were effectively limited to specialty items not available domestically, and that Customs Officers were not overwhelmed with small-package direct-to-consumer shipments.

Eliminating the loophole that allows shipments under $800 to be released on simple manifest labels and duty-free.

Domestic importers of record are necessary for tax compliance. The relatively recent authorization of so-called “Non-Resident Importers” should be repealed, as it is incompatible with core principles of customs law.

Instituting a mandatory 180-day fund hold period to protect consumers and intellectual property rights.

Extend shipping manifest disclosure requirements currently applicable to ocean vessels to air and land cargo for self-policing and accountability.

Currently, only ocean vessel manifests are disclosed, whereas cargo arriving via air or land remains secret. This discrepancy should be avoided, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection should stop rubber-stamping manifest confidentiality requests. These should be reserved for compelling national security instances.

Online Marketplace Platform Problems: Many laws and taxes that underpin brick and mortar commerce fail to interface with online shopping platforms. For example, while eBay was founded in 1995, it wasn’t until 2018 that all U.S. states adopted “marketplace facilitator” rules that force platforms to collect and remit sales tax. Similarly, many consumer protection laws, like the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, are written only contemplating a brick and mortar retail environment. This and other consumer protection laws need to be updated to deal with the reality of online shopping platforms that do not take title or responsibility for items sold on their platform.

Implementing a mandatory 25% marketplace withholding tax for foreign sellers.

Before platforms issue payments to foreign entities, require that the foreign entity have appointed a U.S.-based responsible party with liability bonds of at least $1 million held in a U.S. bank. Foreign sellers must be insured through U.S. insurance providers.

Federal incentives encouraging U.S. small businesses to manufacture and invest domestically.

A mandatory 90-day pre-registration for foreign products to allow IP review by American businesses.

Holding marketplaces liable for enforcing fair competition and preventing manipulation and counterfeit sales.

Ensuring marketplaces cannot offer better incentives to foreign sellers.

BENEFITS OF AEBA'S
POLICY REFORMS

Implementing AEBA’s policy proposals would:

  • Ensure fair competition and balanced trade relationships

  • Protect American consumers from unsafe, counterfeit products

  • Significantly increase U.S. tax revenue ($19-$90 billion annually)

  • Boost tariff revenue by reducing fraud

  • Foster domestic entrepreneurship and create millions of U.S. jobs

  • Strengthen national security by reducing reliance on overseas supply chains

READY TO JOIN
OUR MOVEMENT?

AEBA Landing Page Form

ABOUT CPA & AEBA

CPA is America’s leading national bipartisan organization advocating exclusively for U.S. producers and workers across many industries. CPA has long been at the forefront of efforts to rebuild America’s industrial base, reshore manufacturing, strengthen national security, and create broadly shared prosperity. AEBA is CPA’s dedicated project specifically focused on addressing the unique challenges facing American e-commerce businesses today.

CPA's core capabilities—government advocacy, strategic communications, economic analysis, and regulatory expertise—position AEBA to effectively advance policy solutions critical to the American e-commerce landscape.