[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7450 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7450

 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 23, 2024

  Ms. Stefanik (for herself, Mr. Barr, and Mr. Hudson) 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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