119-hr2019

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2019 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 2019

 To require covered entities to issue a short-form terms of service 
 summary statement, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 March 10, 2025

 Mrs. Trahan introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To require covered entities to issue a short-form terms of service 
 summary statement, 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 ``Terms-of-service Labeling, Design, 
and Readability Act'' or the ``TLDR Act''.

SEC. 2. STANDARD TERMS OF SERVICE SUMMARY STATEMENT.

    (a) Deadline for Terms of Service Summary Statement.--Not later 
than 360 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Commission shall issue a rule in accordance with 

section 553 of title 
5, United States Code, with regard to a covered entity that publishes 
or has published a terms of service--

    (1) that requires the covered entity to include a truthful 
 and non-misleading short-form terms of service summary 
 statement on the website of the entity;

    (2) that requires the covered entity to include a truthful 
 and non-misleading graphic data flow diagram on the website of 
 the entity; and

    (3) that requires the covered entity to display the full 
 terms of service of the entity in an interactive data format.

    (b) No New Contractual Obligation.--The requirement to include a 
summary statement described in subsection

    (a)

    (1) does not create any 
new contractual obligation.
            (c) Requirements for Short-Form Terms of Service Summary 
Statement.--

    (1) In general.--The short-form terms of service summary 
 statement described in subsection

    (a)

    (1) --
        (A) shall be accessible to individuals with low 
 levels of literacy and individuals with disabilities, 
 be machine readable, and include tables, graphic icons, 
 hyperlinks, or other means as the Commission may 
 require; and
        (B) may be presented differently depending on the 
 interface or type of device on which the statement is 
 being accessed by the user.

    (2) Location of summary statement and graphic data flow 
 diagram.--The summary statement described in subsection

    (a)

    (1) shall be placed at the top of the permanent terms of service 
 page of the covered entity, and the graphic data flow diagram 
 described in subsection

    (a)

    (2) shall be located immediately 
 below such summary statement.

    (3) Contents of summary statement.--The summary statement 
 described in subsection

    (a)

    (1) shall include the following:
        (A) The categories of sensitive information that 
 the covered entity processes.
        (B) The sensitive information that is required for 
 the basic functioning of the service and what sensitive 
 information is needed for additional features and 
 future feature development.
            (C) A summary of the legal liabilities of a user 
 and any rights transferred from the user to the covered 
 entity, such as mandatory arbitration, class action 
 waiver, any licensing or sale by the covered entity of 
 the content of the user, and any waiver of moral 
 rights.
            (D) Historical versions of the terms of service and 
 change logs.
        (E) If the covered entity provides user deletion 
 services, directions for how the user can delete 
 sensitive information or discontinue the use of 
 sensitive information.
        (F) A list of data breaches from the previous 3 
 years reported to consumers under existing Federal and 
 State laws.
        (G) The effort required by a user to read the 
 entire terms of service text, such as through the total 
 word count and approximate time to read the statement.
        (H) Any other information the Commission determines 
 to be necessary if that information is included in the 
 terms of service by the covered entity.

    (4) Additional information required by the commission.--In 
 the rule issued under subsection

    (a) , the Commission shall 
 include a list of other information the Commission determines 
 to be necessary under paragraph

    (3)
        (H) .
            (d) Guidance on Graphic Data Flow Diagrams.--Not later than 360 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 
publish guidelines on how a covered entity can graphically display how 
the sensitive information of a user is shared with a subsidiary or 
corporate affiliate of such entity and how such sensitive information 
is shared with third parties.

    (e) Interactive Data Format Terms of Service.--Not later than 360 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 
issue a rule in accordance with 

section 553 of title 5, United States 
Code, that requires a covered entity to tag portions of the terms of 
services of the entity according to an interactive data format.

    (f) Enforcement.--

    (1) Enforcement by the commission.--
        (A) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices.--A 
 violation of this Act or a regulation promulgated under 
 this Act shall be treated as a violation of a rule 
 defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice under 
 

section 18

    (a)

    (1)
        (B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 
 (15 U.S.C. 57a

    (a)

    (1)
        (B) ).
        (B) Powers of the commission.--
            (i) In general.--The Commission shall 
 enforce this section and the regulations 
 promulgated under this section in the same 
 manner, by the same means, and with the same 
 jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all 
 applicable terms and provisions of the Federal 
 Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) 
 were incorporated into and made a part of this 
 section.
            (ii) Privileges and immunities.--Any person 
 who violates this section or a regulation 
 promulgated under this section shall be subject 
 to the penalties and entitled to the privileges 
 and immunities provided in the Federal Trade 
 Commission Act.
            (iii) Authority persevered.--Nothing in 
 this section shall be construed to limit the 
 authority of the Commission under any other 
 provision of law.

    (2) Enforcement by states.--
        (A) In general.--In any case in which the attorney 
 general of a State has reason to believe that an 
 interest of at least 1,000 residents of that State has 
 been or is threatened or adversely affected by the 
 engagement of any person in a practice that violates 
 this section or a regulation promulgated under this 
 section, the attorney general of the State, as parens 
 patriae, may bring a civil action on behalf of the 
 residents of the State in a district court of the 
 United States of appropriate jurisdiction--
            (i) to enjoin that practice;
            (ii) to enforce compliance with this 
 section;
            (iii) to obtain damages, restitution, or 
 other compensation on behalf of such residents; 
 and
            (iv) to obtain such other relief as the 
 court may consider to be appropriate.
        (B) Rights of the commission.--
            (i) Notice to the commission.--
            (I) In general.--Except as provided 
 in subclause
            (III) , the attorney 
 general of a State shall notify the 
 Commission in writing that the attorney 
 general intends to bring a civil action 
 under subparagraph
        (A) before 
 initiating the civil action.
            (II) Contents.--The notification 
 required by subclause
            (I) with respect 
 to a civil action shall include a copy 
 of the complaint to be filed to 
 initiate the civil action.
            (III) Exemption.--If it is not 
 feasible for the attorney general of a 
 State to provide the notification 
 required by subclause
            (I) before 
 initiating a civil action under 
 subparagraph
        (A) , the attorney general 
 shall notify the Commission immediately 
 upon instituting the civil action.
            (ii) Intervention by the commission.--The 
 Commission may--
            (I) intervene in any civil action 
 brought by the attorney general of a 
 State under subparagraph
        (A) ; and
            (II) upon intervening--

    (aa) be heard on all 
 matters arising in the civil 
 action; and

    (bb) file petitions for 
 appeal.
            (C) Construction.--Nothing in this paragraph may be 
 construed to prevent an attorney general of a State 
 from exercising the powers conferred on the attorney 
 general by the laws of that State to--
            (i) conduct investigations;
            (ii) administer oaths or affirmations; or
            (iii) compel the attendance of witnesses or 
 the production of documentary and other 
 evidence.
            (D) Actions by the commission.--In any case in 
 which an action is instituted by or on behalf of the 
 Commission for a violation of this section or a 
 regulation promulgated under this section, a State may 
 not, during the pendency of that action, institute a 
 separate action under subparagraph
        (A) against any 
 defendant named in the complaint in the action 
 instituted by or on behalf of the Commission for that 
 violation.
        (E) Venue; service of process.--
            (i) Venue.--Any action brought under 
 subparagraph
        (A) may be brought in--
            (I) the district court of the 
 United States that meets applicable 
 requirements relating to venue under 
 

section 1391 of title 28, United States 
 Code; or
            (II) another court of competent 
 jurisdiction.
            (ii) Service of process.--In an action 
 brought under paragraph

    (1) , process may be 
 served in any district in which the defendant--
            (I) is an inhabitant; or
            (II) may be found.

    (g) 

=== Definitions. ===
-In this section:

    (1) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
 Trade Commission.

    (2) Covered entity.--The term ``covered entity''--
        (A) means any person that operates a website 
 located on the internet or an online service that is 
 operated for commercial purposes; and
        (B) does not include a small business concern (as 
 defined in 

section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 
 U.S.C. 632)).

    (3) Disability.--The term ``disability'' has the meaning 
 given the term in 

section 3 of the Americans with Disabilities 
 Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12102).

    (4) Interactive data format.--The term ``interactive data 
 format'' means an electronic data format in which pieces of 
 information are identified using an interactive data standard, 
 such as eXtensible Markup Language (commonly known as ``XML''), 
 that is a standardized list of electronic tags that mark the 
 information described in subsection
            (c) (3) within the terms of 
 service of a covered entity.

    (5) Moral rights.--The term ``moral rights'' means the 
 rights conferred by 

section 106A

    (a) of title 17, United States 
 Code.

    (6) Process.--The term ``process'' means any operation or 
 set of operations performed on sensitive information, including 
 collection, analysis, organization, structuring, retaining, 
 using, or otherwise handling sensitive information.

    (7) Sensitive information.--The term ``sensitive 
 information'' means any of the following:
        (A) Health information.
        (B) Biometric information.
            (C) Precise geolocation information.
            (D) Social security number.
        (E) Information concerning the race, color, 
 religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability of 
 an individual.
        (F) The content and parties to a communication.
        (G) Audio and video recordings captured through a 
 consumer device.
        (H) Financial information, including a bank account 
 number, credit card number, debit card number, or 
 insurance policy number.
            (I) Online browsing history, which means 
 information revealing online activities over time or 
 across websites or online services not owned or 
 operated by the covered entity.

    (8) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the several 
 States, the District of Columbia, each commonwealth, territory, 
 or possession of the United States, and each Federally 
 recognized Indian Tribe.

    (9) Third party.--The term ``third party'' means, with 
 respect to a covered entity, a person--
        (A) to which the covered entity disclosed sensitive 
 information; and
        (B) that is not--
            (i) the covered entity;
            (ii) a subsidiary or corporate affiliate of 
 the covered entity; or
            (iii) a service provider of the covered 
 entity.
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