I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1479
To prohibit unfair and deceptive advertising of prices for hotel rooms and
other places of short-term lodging, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY21, 2025
Mrs. K
IM(for herself, Ms. CASTORof Florida, Mr. FRY, and Mr. MULLIN)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on En-
ergy and Commerce
A BILL
To prohibit unfair and deceptive advertising of prices for
hotel rooms and other places of short-term lodging, 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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hotel Fees Trans-4
parency Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON UNFAIR AND DECEPTIVE ADVER-6
TISING OF HOTEL ROOMS AND OTHER 7
SHORT-TERM RENTAL PRICES. 8
(a) P
ROHIBITION.— 9
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(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for a 1
covered entity to display, advertise, market, or offer 2
in interstate commerce, including through direct of-3
ferings, third-party distribution, or metasearch refer-4
rals, a price for covered services that does not clear-5
ly, conspicuously, and prominently— 6
(A) display the total services price, if a 7
price is displayed, in any advertisement, mar-8
keting, or price list wherever the covered serv-9
ices are displayed, advertised, marketed, or of-10
fered for sale; 11
(B) disclose to any individual who seeks to 12
purchase covered services the total services 13
price at the time the covered services are first 14
displayed to the individual and anytime there-15
after throughout the covered services pur-16
chasing process; and 17
(C) disclose, prior to the final purchase, 18
any tax, fee, or assessment imposed by any gov-19
ernment entity, quasi-government entity, or 20
government-created special district or program 21
on the sale of covered services. 22
(2) I
NDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS .—Provided that 23
such displays are less prominent than the total serv-24
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ice price required in paragraph (1), nothing in this 1
Act shall be construed to prohibit the display of— 2
(A) individual components of the total 3
price; or 4
(B) details of other items not required by 5
paragraph (1). 6
(3) I
NDEMNIFICATION PROVISIONS .—Nothing 7
in this section shall be construed to prohibit any cov-8
ered entity from entering into a contract with any 9
other covered entity that contains an indemnification 10
provision with respect to price or fee information 11
disclosed, exchanged, or shared between the covered 12
entities that are parties to the contract. 13
(b) E
NFORCEMENT.— 14
(1) E
NFORCEMENT BY THE COMMISSION .— 15
(A) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -16
TICES.—A violation of subsection (a) shall be 17
treated as a violation of a rule defining an un-18
fair or deceptive act or practice prescribed 19
under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade 20
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 21
(B) P
OWERS OF THE COMMISSION .— 22
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The Commission 23
shall enforce this section in the same man-24
ner, by the same means, and with the 25
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same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as 1
though all applicable terms and provisions 2
of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 3
U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into 4
and made a part of this Act. 5
(ii) P
RIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .— 6
Any person who violates this section shall 7
be subject to the penalties and entitled to 8
the privileges and immunities provided in 9
the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 10
U.S.C. 41 et seq.). 11
(iii) A
UTHORITY PRESERVED .—Noth-12
ing in this section shall be construed to 13
limit the authority of the Commission 14
under any other provision of law. 15
(2) E
NFORCEMENT BY STATES .— 16
(A) I
N GENERAL.—If the attorney general 17
of a State has reason to believe that an interest 18
of the residents of the State has been or is 19
being threatened or adversely affected by a 20
practice that violates subsection (a), the attor-21
ney general of the State may, as parens patriae, 22
bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of 23
the State in an appropriate district court of the 24
United States to obtain appropriate relief. 25
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(B) RIGHTS OF THE COMMISSION .— 1
(i) N
OTICE TO THE COMMISSION .— 2
(I) I
N GENERAL.—Except as pro-3
vided in subclause (III), the attorney 4
general of a State, before initiating a 5
civil action under subparagraph (A) 6
shall notify the Commission in writing 7
that the attorney general intends to 8
bring such civil action. 9
(II) C
ONTENTS.—The notifica-10
tion required by subclause (I) shall in-11
clude a copy of the complaint to be 12
filed to initiate the civil action. 13
(III) E
XCEPTION.—If it is not 14
feasible for the attorney general of a 15
State to provide the notification re-16
quired by subclause (I) before initi-17
ating a civil action under subpara-18
graph (A), the attorney general shall 19
notify the Commission immediately 20
upon instituting the civil action. 21
(ii) I
NTERVENTION BY THE COMMIS -22
SION.—The Commission may— 23
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(I) intervene in any civil action 1
brought by the attorney general of a 2
State under subparagraph (A); and 3
(II) upon intervening— 4
(aa) be heard on all matters 5
arising in the civil action; and 6
(bb) file petitions for appeal. 7
(C) I
NVESTIGATORY POWERS .—Nothing in 8
this paragraph may be construed to prevent the 9
attorney general of a State from exercising the 10
powers conferred on the attorney general by the 11
laws of the State to conduct investigations, to 12
administer oaths or affirmations, or to compel 13
the attendance of witnesses or the production of 14
documentary or other evidence. 15
(D) A
CTION BY THE COMMISSION .—When-16
ever a civil action has been instituted by or on 17
behalf of the Commission for violation of sub-18
section (a), no attorney general of a State may, 19
during the pendency of that action, institute an 20
action under subparagraph (A) against any de-21
fendant named in the complaint in that action 22
for a violation of subsection (a) alleged in such 23
complaint. 24
(E) V
ENUE; SERVICE OF PROCESS.— 25
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(i) VENUE.—Any action brought 1
under subparagraph (A) may be brought 2
in— 3
(I) the district court of the 4
United States that meets applicable 5
requirements relating to venue under 6
section 1391 of title 28, United States 7
Code; or 8
(II) another court of competent 9
jurisdiction. 10
(ii) S
ERVICE OF PROCESS.—In an ac-11
tion brought under subparagraph (A), 12
process may be served in any district in 13
which— 14
(I) the defendant is an inhab-15
itant, may be found, or transacts 16
business; or 17
(II) venue is proper under section 18
1391 of title 28, United States Code. 19
(F) A
CTIONS BY OTHER STATE OFFI -20
CIALS.— 21
(i) I
N GENERAL.—In addition to civil 22
actions brought by an attorney general 23
under subparagraph (A), any other officer 24
of a State who is authorized by the State 25
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to do so may bring a civil action under 1
subparagraph (A), subject to the same re-2
quirements and limitations that apply 3
under this paragraph to civil actions 4
brought by attorneys general. 5
(ii) S
AVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in 6
this paragraph may be construed to pro-7
hibit an authorized official of a State from 8
initiating or continuing any proceeding in 9
a court of the State for a violation of any 10
civil or criminal law of the State. 11
(3) A
FFIRMATIVE DEFENSE .—In any action 12
pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2), an intermediary 13
or third-party online seller may assert an affirmative 14
defense if such intermediary or third-party online 15
seller— 16
(A) established procedures to receive up-to- 17
date price information from hotels or short- 18
term rentals, or agents acting on behalf of a 19
hotel or short-term rental; 20
(B) relied in good faith on information 21
provided to the intermediary or third-party on-22
line seller by a hotel or short-term rental, or 23
agent acting on behalf of such hotel or short- 24
term rental, and such information was inac-25
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curate at the time it was provided to the inter-1
mediary or third-party online seller; and 2
(C) took prompt action to remove or cor-3
rect any false or inaccurate information about 4
the total services price after receiving notice 5
that such information was false or inaccurate. 6
(c) P
REEMPTION.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A State, or political subdivi-8
sion of a State, may not maintain, enforce, pre-9
scribe, or continue in effect any law, rule, regulation, 10
requirement, standard, or other provision having the 11
force and effect of law of the State, or political sub-12
division of the State, that prohibits a covered entity 13
from advertising, displaying, marketing, or otherwise 14
offering, or otherwise affects the manner in which a 15
covered entity may advertise, display, market, or 16
otherwise offer, for sale in interstate commerce, in-17
cluding through a direct offering, third-party dis-18
tribution, or metasearch referral, a price of a res-19
ervation for a covered service, and that requires fee 20
disclosure, unless such provision requires the total 21
services price to include each service fee in accord-22
ance with subsection (a)(1). 23
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—This section 24
may not be construed to— 25
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(A) preempt any law of a State or political 1
subdivision of a State relating to contracts or 2
torts; or 3
(B) preempt any law of a State or political 4
subdivision of a State to the extent that such 5
law relates to an act of fraud, unauthorized ac-6
cess to personal information, or notification of 7
unauthorized access to personal information. 8
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this Act: 9
(1) B
ASE SERVICES PRICE.—The term ‘‘base 10
services price’’— 11
(A) means, with respect to the covered 12
services provided by a hotel or short-term rent-13
al, the price in order to obtain the covered serv-14
ices of the hotel or short-term rental; and 15
(B) does not include— 16
(i) any service fee; 17
(ii) any taxes or fees imposed by a 18
government or quasi-government entity; 19
(iii) assessment fees of a government- 20
created special district or program; or 21
(iv) any charges or fees for an op-22
tional product or service associated with 23
the covered services that may be selected 24
by a purchaser of covered services. 25
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(2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 1
means the Federal Trade Commission. 2
(3) C
OVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en-3
tity’’ means a person, partnership, or corporation 4
with respect to whom the Commission has jurisdic-5
tion under section 5(a)(2) of the Federal Trade 6
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45(a)(2)), including— 7
(A) a hotel or short-term rental; 8
(B) a third-party online seller; or 9
(C) an intermediary. 10
(4) C
OVERED SERVICES.—The term ‘‘covered 11
services’’— 12
(A) means the temporary provision of a 13
room, building, or other lodging facility; and 14
(B) does not include the provision of a 15
meeting room, banquet services, or catering 16
services. 17
(5) H
OTEL.—The term ‘‘hotel’’ means an es-18
tablishment that is— 19
(A) primarily engaged in providing a cov-20
ered service to the general public; and 21
(B) promoted, advertised, or marketed in 22
interstate commerce or for which such estab-23
lishment’s services are sold in interstate com-24
merce. 25
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(6) INTERMEDIARY.—The term ‘‘intermediary’’ 1
means an entity that operates either as a business- 2
to-business platform, consumer-facing platform, or 3
both, that displays, including through direct offer-4
ings, third-party distribution, or metasearch referral, 5
a price for covered services or price comparison tools 6
for consumers seeking covered services. 7
(7) O
PTIONAL PRODUCT OR SERVICE .—The 8
term ‘‘optional product or service’’ means a product 9
or service that an individual does not need to pur-10
chase to use or obtain covered services. 11
(8) S
ERVICE FEE.—The term ‘‘service fee’’— 12
(A) means a charge imposed by a covered 13
entity that must be paid in order to obtain cov-14
ered services; and 15
(B) does not include— 16
(i) any taxes or fees imposed by a 17
government or quasi-government entity; 18
(ii) any assessment fees of a govern-19
ment-created special district or program; 20
or 21
(iii) any charges or fees for an op-22
tional product or service associated with 23
the covered services that may be selected 24
by a purchaser of covered services. 25
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(9) SHORT-TERM RENTAL.—The term ‘‘short- 1
term rental’’ means a property, including a single- 2
family dwelling or a unit in a condominium, coopera-3
tive, or time-share, that provides covered services 4
(either with respect to the entire property or a part 5
of the property) to the general public— 6
(A) in exchange for a fee; 7
(B) for periods shorter than 30 consecutive 8
days; and 9
(C) is promoted, advertised, or marketed in 10
interstate commerce or for which such prop-11
erty’s services are sold in interstate commerce. 12
(10) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 13
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and any ter-14
ritory or possession of the United States. 15
(11) T
HIRD-PARTY ONLINE SELLER .—The term 16
‘‘third-party online seller’’ means any person other 17
than a hotel or short-term rental that sells covered 18
services or offers for sale covered services with re-19
spect to a hotel or short-term rental in a transaction 20
facilitated on the internet. 21
(12) T
OTAL SERVICES PRICE.—The term ‘‘total 22
services’’— 23
(A) means, with respect to covered serv-24
ices, the total cost of the covered services, in-25
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cluding the base services price and any service 1
fees; and 2
(B) does not include— 3
(i) any taxes or fees imposed by a 4
government or quasi-government entity; 5
(ii) any assessment fees of a govern-6
ment-created special district or program; 7
or 8
(iii) any charges or fees for an op-9
tional product or service associated with 10
the covered services that may be selected 11
by a purchaser of covered services. 12
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The prohibition under sub-13
section (a) shall take effect 450 days after the date of 14
the enactment of this Act and shall apply to advertise-15
ments, displays, marketing, and offers of covered services 16
of a covered entity made on or after such date. 17
Æ
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