California Governor Gavin Newsom signs laws against retail shoplifting

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed ten bills on Friday in a last-minute move to combat shoplifting.

The bills provide for increased penalties and fines for shoplifting, theft from a vehicle, organized theft and the resale of stolen goods.

The package follows the arrest of Michelle Mack, the so-called “Queenpin” behind a complex makeup theft ring called “California Girls” that stole millions from the cosmetics chain Ulta.

Critics of lenient penalties in California – where shoplifters only face prison if they steal goods valued at more than $950 – say the move may be too little, too late.

Shop owners are demanding that local and state governments take action to curb retail crime.

According to data from the Public Policy Institute of California, the number of commercial burglaries and robberies in California has increased in recent years.

The data showed that shoplifting has been steadily increasing since 2021.

Since January, the California Highway Patrol's special retail crime unit has made nearly 900 arrests and recovered more than a quarter of a million items of stolen goods valued at more than $7.2 million, the governor's press release said.

The bill, SB1416, would impose harsher penalties on middlemen in organized crime rings – a direct response to Mack's crime ring, according to State Senator Josh Newman.

Before the bill, people accused of involvement in organized crime rings faced a prison sentence of up to three years – critics said this was not strict enough.

The bill extends the sentence depending on the value of the stolen goods. For example, if a person sells, exchanges or returns stolen goods valued at more than $50,000, their sentence will be extended by an additional year.

If a person resells stolen goods valued at more than $3 million, their prison sentence will be extended by an additional four years.

The law is a clear reference to the Ulta queen, who along with her husband has stolen approximately $8 million worth of goods from Ulta and Sephora since 2012. According to prosecutors, law enforcement found over $300,000 worth of stolen goods in their $2.75 million mansion outside San Diego.

Mack – a 53-year-old mother of three young girls – was arrested in December along with her husband, who is already serving a sentence of five years and four months in prison. Mack received a suspended sentence of the same length.

According to CNBC, the couple was ordered to pay $3 million in damages to Ulta and about $13,000 to Sephora.

At least nine other people have been charged in connection with this sophisticated plot.

Mack and her husband robbed hundreds of stores across California, as well as stores in ten other states.

The bill SB1144 also targets cases like Mack's. It makes it easier to prosecute online marketplaces that resell stolen goods.

Mack made millions reselling the stolen Ulta and Sephora products on their Amazon store, which included beauty products, sunglasses and designer bags, among other items. The couple packaged the goods and shipped them from their garage.

According to Amazon sales records published by CNBC, they made $1.89 million from online resale fraud in 2022 alone.

Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell told CNBC earlier this year that the “financial impact” of organized shoplifting is “real.”

“While some seek to return us to the ineffective and costly measures of the past, these new laws represent a better way forward – making our communities safer and giving law enforcement meaningful tools to arrest and hold criminals accountable,” Newsom said in a statement.

However, it is unclear whether the laws will be sufficient to reverse the damage that has already been done.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, shoplifting in California increased 29% in 2022 since 2019.

The number of commercial burglaries increased by 16 percent during the same period, and the number of robberies increased by 13 percent, the data shows.

According to the data, the Bay Area had the highest reported retail crime rate and the largest increase since 2019.