§ 8.01-226.9.Exemption from civil liability in connection with arrest or detention of person suspected of shoplifting.

This section codifies what is often called the merchant’s privilege — protection for stores that detain a suspected shoplifter without waiting for police to make the call. A merchant, or the merchant’s agent or employee, who causes the arrest or detention of a person suspected of shoplifting or willfully concealing merchandise, under Virginia’s shoplifting and concealment statutes, is shielded from civil liability for unlawful detention (as long as it does not run over an hour), slander, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, false arrest, or assault and battery connected to that detention.

The immunity applies whether the detention happens on the store’s premises or after close pursuit away from them, and it depends entirely on probable cause: the merchant, agent, or employee had to have probable cause, at the time of the arrest or detention, to believe the person had shoplifted or concealed merchandise. The section then supplies an evidentiary shortcut for one common scenario: when an electronic article surveillance device — the kind that triggers an alarm at a store exit — goes off as someone leaves, that activation itself counts as probable cause for detention, provided the detention is reasonable in manner and duration and the store has posted clear, visible notice at each device location warning of an antitheft or inventory-control device.