I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION 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
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Mr. M
OOREof West Virginia (for himself, Mr. BARR, Mr. HUDSON, Mr. BEAN
of Florida, Mr. C
LINE, Mr. PERRY, Ms. VANDUYNE, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr.
C
OLLINS, Mr. FINSTAD, Mr. MOOREof Alabama, Mr. WEBSTERof Flor-
ida, Mr. G
UEST, Mr. RULLI, Mr. WILLIAMSof Texas, Mr. HIGGINSof
Louisiana, Mr. B
OST, Ms. TENNEY, Mr. SCHMIDT, Mr. MOOREof North
Carolina, Mr. N
EWHOUSE, Mr. COMER, Mr. WOMACK, Mr. ROSE, Mr.
Y
AKYM, Mr. GILLof Texas, and Mr. RUTHERFORD) introduced the fol-
lowing 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 Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:22 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1181.IH H1181
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 1181 IH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Privacy in 2
Purchases Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. DISTINGUISHING FIREARMS SALES. 4
(a) P
ROHIBITIONSRELATING TOMERCHANTCAT-5
EGORYCODES.— 6
(1) P
AYMENT CARD NETWORKS .—A payment 7
card network may not require a firearms retailer to 8
use, nor require a covered entity to assign, a mer-9
chant category code that distinguishes such firearms 10
retailer from a general-merchandise retailer or a 11
sporting-goods retailer. 12
(2) C
OVERED ENTITIES.—A covered entity or 13
its agent may not assign to a firearms retailer any 14
merchant category code that distinguishes from a 15
general-merchandise retailer or a sporting-goods re-16
tailer. 17
(b) E
NFORCEMENT.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Attorney General shall 19
enforce this section and shall, not later than 90 days 20
after the date of the enactment of this section, es-21
tablish a process for individuals, including firearms 22
retailers, to submit complaints relating to alleged 23
violations of this section. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:22 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1181.IH H1181
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 1181 IH
(2) INVESTIGATION.—The Attorney General 1
shall investigate each complaint received through the 2
processes established under paragraph (1). 3
(3) W
RITTEN NOTICE.—If the Attorney General 4
determines after conducting an investigation that a 5
payment card network or covered entity has violated 6
this section, the Attorney General shall send a writ-7
ten notice of such violation to such payment card 8
network or covered entity that requires the payment 9
card network or covered entity to remedy the viola-10
tion not later than 30 days after the date on which 11
the payment card network or covered entity receives 12
such notice. 13
(4) I
NJUNCTION.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—If a payment card net-15
work or covered entity does not remedy a viola-16
tion within 30 days of receiving a written notice 17
under paragraph (3), the Attorney General may 18
bring an action in Federal court to enjoin the 19
violating behavior. 20
(B) N
O PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION .—This 21
Act does not create a private right of action. 22
(c) P
REEMPTION.—Any law of a State or local gov-23
ernment regulating merchant category codes for firearm 24
retailers is hereby preempted. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:22 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1181.IH H1181
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 1181 IH
(d) REPORT.—The Attorney General shall, each year, 1
submit a report to the Congress that— 2
(1) identifies the number of investigations un-3
dertaken by the Attorney General under this section; 4
(2) includes a summary of such cases and their 5
disposition; and 6
(3) provides any available data and analysis re-7
garding the effectiveness of this Act. 8
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 9
(1) A
MMUNITION.—The term ‘‘ammunition’’ 10
has the meaning given the term in section 11
921(a)(17)(A) of title 18, United States Code. 12
(2) C
OVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en-13
tity’’ means any entity that— 14
(A) establishes a relationship with a mer-15
chant for the purposes of processing credit, 16
debit, or prepaid transactions; or 17
(B) establishes a relationship with an enti-18
ty that establishes a relationship with a mer-19
chant for the purposes of processing credit, 20
debit, or prepaid transactions. 21
(3) F
IREARM.—The term ‘‘firearm’’ has the 22
meaning given the term in section 921(a)(3), (5), 23
(7), (16), (29), (30), of title 18, United States Code. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:22 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1181.IH H1181
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 1181 IH
(4) FIREARMS RETAILER.—The term ‘‘firearms 1
retailer’’ means a person or entity engaged in the 2
lawful business of selling or trading firearms or am-3
munition to be used in firearms. 4
(5) M
ERCHANT CATEGORY CODE .—The term 5
‘‘merchant category code’’ means a multi-digit code, 6
issued by the International Organization for Stand-7
ardization, for the purposes of enabling the classi-8
fication of merchants into specific categories based 9
on the type of business, trade or services supplied. 10
(6) P
AYMENT CARD NETWORK .—The term 11
‘‘payment card network’’ means an entity that di-12
rectly or through a licensed member, processor, or 13
agent provides proprietary services, infrastructure, 14
or software, or hardware that route information 15
used to authorize, clear and settle credit card and 16
debit card transactions. 17
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 17:22 Mar 08, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1181.IH H1181
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB