On Monday, EBay Inc. and the National Retail Federation, the trade group for the retail industry, said that they have joined hands to battle against organized retail crime.

The collaboration will receive support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and intends to facilitate law enforcement in criminal investigations and to avoid crimes in which goods are stolen from stores and then resold online.

According to a report released in November from the UK-based Center for Retail Research and Checkpoint Systems, retail robbery, called "shrink" by the industry, virtually reached $115 billion worldwide last year.

92% of retailers complained of organized retail crime in the past year, while around 73% said that the level of such crime had increased, according to a 2009 NRF study.

EBay is a huge e-commerce market where buyers and sellers connect. It has done its best to make sure that brands sold on its site are legal and that posts from sellers advertising fake goods is swiftly taken out.

However, brands grumble that stolen goods effortlessly reach the Internet, where it is very hard to track their origins.

EBay and the NRF said that spokespersons from their groups would meet up on a regular basis to suggest the best ways to avoid organized retail crime and using new technology to recognize and track crime groups.