119-hr1181

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1181 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 1181

 To prohibit payment card networks and covered entities from requiring 
 the use of or assigning merchant category codes that distinguish a 
 firearms retailer from general-merchandise retailer or sporting-goods 
 retailer, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 February 11, 2025

Mr. Moore of West Virginia (for himself, Mr. Barr, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Bean 
 of Florida, Mr. Cline, Mr. Perry, Ms. Van Duyne, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. 
Collins, Mr. Finstad, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Mr. Webster of Florida, Mr. 
Guest, Mr. Rulli, Mr. Williams of Texas, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mr. 
 Bost, Ms. Tenney, Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Moore of North Carolina, Mr. 
 Newhouse, Mr. Comer, Mr. Womack, Mr. Rose, Mr. Yakym, Mr. Gill of 
 Texas, and Mr. Rutherford) introduced the following bill; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To prohibit payment card networks and covered entities from requiring 
 the use of or assigning merchant category codes that distinguish a 
 firearms retailer from general-merchandise retailer or sporting-goods 
 retailer, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Privacy in Purchases 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DISTINGUISHING FIREARMS SALES.

    (a) Prohibitions Relating to Merchant Category Codes.--

    (1) Payment card networks.--A payment card network may not 
 require a firearms retailer to use, nor require a covered 
 entity to assign, a merchant category code that distinguishes 
 such firearms retailer from a general-merchandise retailer or a 
 sporting-goods retailer.

    (2) Covered entities.--A covered entity or its agent may 
 not assign to a firearms retailer any merchant category code 
 that distinguishes from a general-merchandise retailer or a 
 sporting-goods retailer.

    (b) Enforcement.--

    (1) In general.--The Attorney General shall enforce this 
 section and shall, not later than 90 days after the date of the 
 enactment of this section, establish a process for individuals, 
 including firearms retailers, to submit complaints relating to 
 alleged violations of this section.

    (2) Investigation.--The Attorney General shall investigate 
 each complaint received through the processes established under 
 paragraph

    (1) .

    (3) Written notice.--If the Attorney General determines 
 after conducting an investigation that a payment card network 
 or covered entity has violated this section, the Attorney 
 General shall send a written notice of such violation to such 
 payment card network or covered entity that requires the 
 payment card network or covered entity to remedy the violation 
 not later than 30 days after the date on which the payment card 
 network or covered entity receives such notice.

    (4) Injunction.--
        (A) In general.--If a payment card network or 
 covered entity does not remedy a violation within 30 
 days of receiving a written notice under paragraph

    (3) , 
 the Attorney General may bring an action in Federal 
 court to enjoin the violating behavior.
        (B) No private right of action.--This Act does not 
 create a private right of action.
            (c) Preemption.--Any law of a State or local government regulating 
merchant category codes for firearm retailers is hereby preempted.
            (d) Report.--The Attorney General shall, each year, submit a report 
to the Congress that--

    (1) identifies the number of investigations undertaken by 
 the Attorney General under this section;

    (2) includes a summary of such cases and their disposition; 
 and

    (3) provides any available data and analysis regarding the 
 effectiveness of this Act.

    (e) 

=== Definitions. ===
-In this Act:

    (1) Ammunition.--The term ``ammunition'' has the meaning 
 given the term in 

section 921

    (a)

    (17)
        (A) of title 18, United 
 States Code.

    (2) Covered entity.--The term ``covered entity'' means any 
 entity that--
        (A) establishes a relationship with a merchant for 
 the purposes of processing credit, debit, or prepaid 
 transactions; or
        (B) establishes a relationship with an entity that 
 establishes a relationship with a merchant for the 
 purposes of processing credit, debit, or prepaid 
 transactions.

    (3) Firearm.--The term ``firearm'' has the meaning given 
 the term in 

section 921

    (a)

    (3) ,

    (5) ,

    (7) ,

    (16) ,

    (29) ,

    (30) , of 
 title 18, United States Code.

    (4) Firearms retailer.--The term ``firearms retailer'' 
 means a person or entity engaged in the lawful business of 
 selling or trading firearms or ammunition to be used in 
 firearms.

    (5) Merchant category code.--The term ``merchant category 
 code'' means a multi-digit code, issued by the International 
 Organization for Standardization, for the purposes of enabling 
 the classification of merchants into specific categories based 
 on the type of business, trade or services supplied.

    (6) Payment card network.--The term ``payment card 
 network'' means an entity that directly or through a licensed 
 member, processor, or agent provides proprietary services, 
 infrastructure, or software, or hardware that route information 
 used to authorize, clear and settle credit card and debit card 
 transactions.
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