Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act

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

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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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