I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2427
To prohibit price gouging as an unfair and deceptive act or practice during
a major disaster or emergency, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH27, 2025
Ms. F
RIEDMAN(for herself and Mr. SHERMAN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To prohibit price gouging as an unfair and deceptive act
or practice during a major disaster or emergency, 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 ‘‘Stop Disaster Price 4
Gouging Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON PRICE GOUGING. 6
(a) P
ROHIBITION.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-8
graph (2), during the period described below after 9
the date on which the President declares a major 10
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•HR 2427 IH
disaster or emergency under section 401 or 501 of 1
the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-2
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170; 5191) and 3
within the area in which the disaster or emergency 4
is declared a person— 5
(A) may not increase the price as of the 6
day before such date by more than 10 per-7
cent— 8
(i) with respect to essential consumer 9
goods and services, hotel lodging, and resi-10
dential rental properties, for a period of 30 11
days; and 12
(ii) with respect to repair or recon-13
struction services, for a period of 180 days; 14
and 15
(B) may not charge a price for essential 16
consumer goods and services, hotel lodging, res-17
idential rental property, or reconstruction serv-18
ices that is more than 50 percent greater than 19
the cost to the person for 30 days after such 20
date if the person did not charge that price be-21
fore such date. 22
(2) E
XCEPTION.—The prohibition described in 23
paragraph (1) does not apply as follows: 24
(A) If the increased price— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•HR 2427 IH
(i) is— 1
(I) directly attributable to addi-2
tional cost paid by the person to a 3
supplier of the goods or for labor or 4
materials used to provide services; and 5
(II) is not more than 10 percent 6
greater than the total of the cost to 7
the person plus the markup custom-8
arily applied by that seller for that 9
good or service in the usual course of 10
business immediately prior to the 11
onset of the major disaster or emer-12
gency; or 13
(ii) is directly attributable to tariffs or 14
national trade policies. 15
(B) For a hotel or motel rate, if the in-16
creased price is attributable to seasonable ad-17
justments that are regularly scheduled. 18
(C) For a rental rate, if the increased price 19
is directly attributable to additional costs for 20
repairs or additions beyond normal maintenance 21
that were amortized over the rental term that 22
caused the rent to be increased greater than 10 23
percent or that an increase was contractually 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•HR 2427 IH
agreed to by the tenant prior to the disaster or 1
emergency. 2
(b) E
NFORCEMENT BY FEDERALTRADECOMMIS-3
SION.— 4
(1) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -5
TICES.—A violation of subsection (a) or a regulation 6
promulgated under such subsection shall be treated 7
as a violation of a regulation under section 8
18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 9
(15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or decep-10
tive acts or practices. 11
(2) P
OWERS OF COMMISSION .—The Federal 12
Trade Commission shall enforce subsection (a) and 13
any regulation promulgated under such subsection in 14
the same manner, by the same means, and with the 15
same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all 16
applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 17
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incor-18
porated into and made a part of this Act. Any per-19
son who violates such subsection or a regulation pro-20
mulgated under such subsection shall be subject to 21
the penalties described in subsection (e) and entitled 22
to the privileges and immunities provided in the 23
Federal Trade Commission Act. 24
(c) A
CTIONS BYSTATES.— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•HR 2427 IH
(1) IN GENERAL.—In any case in which the at-1
torney general of a State, or an official or agency of 2
a State, has reason to believe that an interest of the 3
residents of such State has been or is threatened or 4
adversely affected by an act or practice in violation 5
of subsection (a) or a regulation promulgated under 6
such subsection, the State, as parens patriae, may 7
bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the 8
State in an appropriate State court or an appro-9
priate district court of the United States to— 10
(A) enjoin such act or practice; 11
(B) enforce compliance with such sub-12
section or such regulation; 13
(C) obtain damages, restitution, or other 14
compensation on behalf of residents of the 15
State; or 16
(D) obtain such other legal and equitable 17
relief as the court may consider to be appro-18
priate. 19
(2) N
OTICE.—Before filing an action under this 20
subsection, the attorney general, official, or agency 21
of the State involved shall provide to the Commis-22
sion a written notice of such action and a copy of 23
the complaint for such action. If the attorney gen-24
eral, official, or agency determines that it is not fea-25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•HR 2427 IH
sible to provide the notice described in this para-1
graph before the filing of the action, the attorney 2
general, official, or agency shall provide written no-3
tice of the action and a copy of the complaint to the 4
Commission immediately upon the filing of the ac-5
tion. 6
(3) A
UTHORITY OF FEDERAL TRADE COMMIS -7
SION.— 8
(A) I
N GENERAL.—On receiving notice 9
under paragraph (2) of an action under this 10
subsection, the Commission shall have the 11
right— 12
(i) to intervene in the action; 13
(ii) upon so intervening, to be heard 14
on all matters arising therein; and 15
(iii) to file petitions for appeal. 16
(B) L
IMITATION ON STATE ACTION WHILE 17
FEDERAL ACTION IS PENDING .—If the Commis-18
sion or the Attorney General of the United 19
States has instituted a civil action for violation 20
of subsection (a) or a regulation promulgated 21
under such subsection (referred to in this sub-22
paragraph as the ‘‘Federal action’’), no State 23
attorney general, official, or agency may bring 24
an action under this subsection during the 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 7
•HR 2427 IH
pendency of the Federal action against any de-1
fendant named in the complaint in the Federal 2
action for any violation of such subsection or 3
regulation alleged in such complaint. 4
(4) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—For purposes of 5
bringing a civil action under this subsection, nothing 6
in this Act shall be construed to prevent an attorney 7
general, official, or agency of a State from exercising 8
the powers conferred on the attorney general, offi-9
cial, or agency by the laws of such State to conduct 10
investigations, administer oaths and affirmations, or 11
compel the attendance of witnesses or the production 12
of documentary and other evidence. 13
(d) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A person injured by an act 15
or practice in violation of subsection (a) or a regula-16
tion promulgated under such subsection may bring 17
in an appropriate State court or an appropriate dis-18
trict court of the United States— 19
(A) an action to enjoin the violation; 20
(B) an action to recover damages for ac-21
tual monetary loss from the violation; or 22
(C) both such actions. 23
(2) W
ILLFUL VIOLATIONS.—If the court finds 24
that the defendant acted willfully in committing a 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 8
•HR 2427 IH
violation described in paragraph (1), the court may, 1
in its discretion, increase the amount of the award 2
to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the 3
amount available under paragraph (1)(B). 4
(3) C
OSTS AND ATTORNEY ’S FEES.—The court 5
shall award to a prevailing plaintiff in an action 6
under this subsection the costs of such action and 7
reasonable attorney’s fees, as determined by the 8
court. 9
(4) L
IMITATION.—An action may be com-10
menced under this subsection not later than 2 years 11
after the date on which the person first discovered 12
or had a reasonable opportunity to discover the vio-13
lation. 14
(5) N
ONEXCLUSIVE REMEDY .—The remedy pro-15
vided by this subsection shall be in addition to any 16
other remedies available to the person. 17
(e) A
MOUNT OFCIVILPENALTIES.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of the pen-19
alties described in subsection (b), the amount deter-20
mined under this paragraph is the amount cal-21
culated by multiplying the number of violations of 22
subsection (a) by an amount not greater than 23
$25,000. Each violation shall be treated as a sepa-24
rate violation. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 9
•HR 2427 IH
(2) MAXIMUM TOTAL LIABILITY .—Notwith-1
standing the number of actions which may be 2
brought against a person under subsection (b), the 3
total amount of civil penalties assessed against such 4
person for all violations of subsection (a) and the 5
regulations promulgated under such subsection re-6
sulting from the same or related acts or practices 7
may not exceed $25,000. 8
(3) A
DJUSTMENT FOR INFLATION .—Beginning 9
on the date that the Consumer Price Index is first 10
published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that is 11
at least 1 year after the date of the enactment of 12
this Act, and each year thereafter, the amount speci-13
fied in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be increased by 14
the percentage increase, if any, in the Consumer 15
Price Index published on such date from the Con-16
sumer Price Index published the previous year. 17
(4) F
UNDING FOR DISASTER ZONES .—Any 18
amount recovered under subsection (b) shall be de-19
posited into a fund to assist communities located in 20
an area affected by a major disaster or emergency 21
declared by the President under section 401 or 501 22
of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-23
gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170; 5191). 24
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 10
•HR 2427 IH
(1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 1
means the Federal Trade Commission. 2
(2) E
SSENTIAL CONSUMER GOODS AND SERV -3
ICES.—The term ‘‘essential consumer goods and 4
services’’ means goods and services that are nec-5
essary for survival and recovery during and after a 6
major disaster or emergency and include any of the 7
following: 8
(A) Food and drink, including food and 9
drink for animals. 10
(B) Emergency supplies such as water, 11
generators, flashlights, radios, batteries, can-12
dles, blankets, soap, diapers, temporary shel-13
ters, tape, toiletries, plywood, nails, and ham-14
mers. 15
(C) Medical supplies such as prescription 16
and non prescription medications, bandages, 17
gauze, isopropyl alcohol, and antibacterial prod-18
ucts. 19
(D) Home heating oil. 20
(E) Building and construction materials 21
such as lumber, construction tools, and win-22
dows. 23
(F) Transportation. 24
(G) Freight. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 11
•HR 2427 IH
(H) Storage services. 1
(I) Gasoline and other motor fuels. 2
(g) R
ELATION TOSTATELAW.—Nothing in this Act 3
may be construed to preempt any provision of State law 4
that does not conflict with this Act. 5
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:06 Apr 28, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2427.IH H2427
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS