Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2427 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 2427
55 To prohibit price gouging as an unfair and deceptive act or practice during
66 a major disaster or emergency, and for other purposes.
77 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
88 MARCH27, 2025
99 Ms. F
1010 RIEDMAN(for herself and Mr. SHERMAN) introduced the following bill;
1111 which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
1212 A BILL
1313 To prohibit price gouging as an unfair and deceptive act
1414 or practice during a major disaster or emergency, and
1515 for other purposes.
1616 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1717 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
1818 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
1919 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Disaster Price 4
2020 Gouging Act’’. 5
2121 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON PRICE GOUGING. 6
2222 (a) P
2323 ROHIBITION.— 7
2424 (1) I
2525 N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-8
2626 graph (2), during the period described below after 9
2727 the date on which the President declares a major 10
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3131 disaster or emergency under section 401 or 501 of 1
3232 the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-2
3333 gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170; 5191) and 3
3434 within the area in which the disaster or emergency 4
3535 is declared a person— 5
3636 (A) may not increase the price as of the 6
3737 day before such date by more than 10 per-7
3838 cent— 8
3939 (i) with respect to essential consumer 9
4040 goods and services, hotel lodging, and resi-10
4141 dential rental properties, for a period of 30 11
4242 days; and 12
4343 (ii) with respect to repair or recon-13
4444 struction services, for a period of 180 days; 14
4545 and 15
4646 (B) may not charge a price for essential 16
4747 consumer goods and services, hotel lodging, res-17
4848 idential rental property, or reconstruction serv-18
4949 ices that is more than 50 percent greater than 19
5050 the cost to the person for 30 days after such 20
5151 date if the person did not charge that price be-21
5252 fore such date. 22
5353 (2) E
5454 XCEPTION.—The prohibition described in 23
5555 paragraph (1) does not apply as follows: 24
5656 (A) If the increased price— 25
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6060 (i) is— 1
6161 (I) directly attributable to addi-2
6262 tional cost paid by the person to a 3
6363 supplier of the goods or for labor or 4
6464 materials used to provide services; and 5
6565 (II) is not more than 10 percent 6
6666 greater than the total of the cost to 7
6767 the person plus the markup custom-8
6868 arily applied by that seller for that 9
6969 good or service in the usual course of 10
7070 business immediately prior to the 11
7171 onset of the major disaster or emer-12
7272 gency; or 13
7373 (ii) is directly attributable to tariffs or 14
7474 national trade policies. 15
7575 (B) For a hotel or motel rate, if the in-16
7676 creased price is attributable to seasonable ad-17
7777 justments that are regularly scheduled. 18
7878 (C) For a rental rate, if the increased price 19
7979 is directly attributable to additional costs for 20
8080 repairs or additions beyond normal maintenance 21
8181 that were amortized over the rental term that 22
8282 caused the rent to be increased greater than 10 23
8383 percent or that an increase was contractually 24
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8787 agreed to by the tenant prior to the disaster or 1
8888 emergency. 2
8989 (b) E
9090 NFORCEMENT BY FEDERALTRADECOMMIS-3
9191 SION.— 4
9292 (1) U
9393 NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -5
9494 TICES.—A violation of subsection (a) or a regulation 6
9595 promulgated under such subsection shall be treated 7
9696 as a violation of a regulation under section 8
9797 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 9
9898 (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or decep-10
9999 tive acts or practices. 11
100100 (2) P
101101 OWERS OF COMMISSION .—The Federal 12
102102 Trade Commission shall enforce subsection (a) and 13
103103 any regulation promulgated under such subsection in 14
104104 the same manner, by the same means, and with the 15
105105 same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all 16
106106 applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 17
107107 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incor-18
108108 porated into and made a part of this Act. Any per-19
109109 son who violates such subsection or a regulation pro-20
110110 mulgated under such subsection shall be subject to 21
111111 the penalties described in subsection (e) and entitled 22
112112 to the privileges and immunities provided in the 23
113113 Federal Trade Commission Act. 24
114114 (c) A
115115 CTIONS BYSTATES.— 25
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119119 (1) IN GENERAL.—In any case in which the at-1
120120 torney general of a State, or an official or agency of 2
121121 a State, has reason to believe that an interest of the 3
122122 residents of such State has been or is threatened or 4
123123 adversely affected by an act or practice in violation 5
124124 of subsection (a) or a regulation promulgated under 6
125125 such subsection, the State, as parens patriae, may 7
126126 bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the 8
127127 State in an appropriate State court or an appro-9
128128 priate district court of the United States to— 10
129129 (A) enjoin such act or practice; 11
130130 (B) enforce compliance with such sub-12
131131 section or such regulation; 13
132132 (C) obtain damages, restitution, or other 14
133133 compensation on behalf of residents of the 15
134134 State; or 16
135135 (D) obtain such other legal and equitable 17
136136 relief as the court may consider to be appro-18
137137 priate. 19
138138 (2) N
139139 OTICE.—Before filing an action under this 20
140140 subsection, the attorney general, official, or agency 21
141141 of the State involved shall provide to the Commis-22
142142 sion a written notice of such action and a copy of 23
143143 the complaint for such action. If the attorney gen-24
144144 eral, official, or agency determines that it is not fea-25
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148148 sible to provide the notice described in this para-1
149149 graph before the filing of the action, the attorney 2
150150 general, official, or agency shall provide written no-3
151151 tice of the action and a copy of the complaint to the 4
152152 Commission immediately upon the filing of the ac-5
153153 tion. 6
154154 (3) A
155155 UTHORITY OF FEDERAL TRADE COMMIS -7
156156 SION.— 8
157157 (A) I
158158 N GENERAL.—On receiving notice 9
159159 under paragraph (2) of an action under this 10
160160 subsection, the Commission shall have the 11
161161 right— 12
162162 (i) to intervene in the action; 13
163163 (ii) upon so intervening, to be heard 14
164164 on all matters arising therein; and 15
165165 (iii) to file petitions for appeal. 16
166166 (B) L
167167 IMITATION ON STATE ACTION WHILE 17
168168 FEDERAL ACTION IS PENDING .—If the Commis-18
169169 sion or the Attorney General of the United 19
170170 States has instituted a civil action for violation 20
171171 of subsection (a) or a regulation promulgated 21
172172 under such subsection (referred to in this sub-22
173173 paragraph as the ‘‘Federal action’’), no State 23
174174 attorney general, official, or agency may bring 24
175175 an action under this subsection during the 25
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179179 pendency of the Federal action against any de-1
180180 fendant named in the complaint in the Federal 2
181181 action for any violation of such subsection or 3
182182 regulation alleged in such complaint. 4
183183 (4) R
184184 ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—For purposes of 5
185185 bringing a civil action under this subsection, nothing 6
186186 in this Act shall be construed to prevent an attorney 7
187187 general, official, or agency of a State from exercising 8
188188 the powers conferred on the attorney general, offi-9
189189 cial, or agency by the laws of such State to conduct 10
190190 investigations, administer oaths and affirmations, or 11
191191 compel the attendance of witnesses or the production 12
192192 of documentary and other evidence. 13
193193 (d) P
194194 RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.— 14
195195 (1) I
196196 N GENERAL.—A person injured by an act 15
197197 or practice in violation of subsection (a) or a regula-16
198198 tion promulgated under such subsection may bring 17
199199 in an appropriate State court or an appropriate dis-18
200200 trict court of the United States— 19
201201 (A) an action to enjoin the violation; 20
202202 (B) an action to recover damages for ac-21
203203 tual monetary loss from the violation; or 22
204204 (C) both such actions. 23
205205 (2) W
206206 ILLFUL VIOLATIONS.—If the court finds 24
207207 that the defendant acted willfully in committing a 25
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211211 violation described in paragraph (1), the court may, 1
212212 in its discretion, increase the amount of the award 2
213213 to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the 3
214214 amount available under paragraph (1)(B). 4
215215 (3) C
216216 OSTS AND ATTORNEY ’S FEES.—The court 5
217217 shall award to a prevailing plaintiff in an action 6
218218 under this subsection the costs of such action and 7
219219 reasonable attorney’s fees, as determined by the 8
220220 court. 9
221221 (4) L
222222 IMITATION.—An action may be com-10
223223 menced under this subsection not later than 2 years 11
224224 after the date on which the person first discovered 12
225225 or had a reasonable opportunity to discover the vio-13
226226 lation. 14
227227 (5) N
228228 ONEXCLUSIVE REMEDY .—The remedy pro-15
229229 vided by this subsection shall be in addition to any 16
230230 other remedies available to the person. 17
231231 (e) A
232232 MOUNT OFCIVILPENALTIES.— 18
233233 (1) I
234234 N GENERAL.—For purposes of the pen-19
235235 alties described in subsection (b), the amount deter-20
236236 mined under this paragraph is the amount cal-21
237237 culated by multiplying the number of violations of 22
238238 subsection (a) by an amount not greater than 23
239239 $25,000. Each violation shall be treated as a sepa-24
240240 rate violation. 25
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244244 (2) MAXIMUM TOTAL LIABILITY .—Notwith-1
245245 standing the number of actions which may be 2
246246 brought against a person under subsection (b), the 3
247247 total amount of civil penalties assessed against such 4
248248 person for all violations of subsection (a) and the 5
249249 regulations promulgated under such subsection re-6
250250 sulting from the same or related acts or practices 7
251251 may not exceed $25,000. 8
252252 (3) A
253253 DJUSTMENT FOR INFLATION .—Beginning 9
254254 on the date that the Consumer Price Index is first 10
255255 published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that is 11
256256 at least 1 year after the date of the enactment of 12
257257 this Act, and each year thereafter, the amount speci-13
258258 fied in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall be increased by 14
259259 the percentage increase, if any, in the Consumer 15
260260 Price Index published on such date from the Con-16
261261 sumer Price Index published the previous year. 17
262262 (4) F
263263 UNDING FOR DISASTER ZONES .—Any 18
264264 amount recovered under subsection (b) shall be de-19
265265 posited into a fund to assist communities located in 20
266266 an area affected by a major disaster or emergency 21
267267 declared by the President under section 401 or 501 22
268268 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emer-23
269269 gency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170; 5191). 24
270270 (f) D
271271 EFINITIONS.—In this section: 25
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275275 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 1
276276 means the Federal Trade Commission. 2
277277 (2) E
278278 SSENTIAL CONSUMER GOODS AND SERV -3
279279 ICES.—The term ‘‘essential consumer goods and 4
280280 services’’ means goods and services that are nec-5
281281 essary for survival and recovery during and after a 6
282282 major disaster or emergency and include any of the 7
283283 following: 8
284284 (A) Food and drink, including food and 9
285285 drink for animals. 10
286286 (B) Emergency supplies such as water, 11
287287 generators, flashlights, radios, batteries, can-12
288288 dles, blankets, soap, diapers, temporary shel-13
289289 ters, tape, toiletries, plywood, nails, and ham-14
290290 mers. 15
291291 (C) Medical supplies such as prescription 16
292292 and non prescription medications, bandages, 17
293293 gauze, isopropyl alcohol, and antibacterial prod-18
294294 ucts. 19
295295 (D) Home heating oil. 20
296296 (E) Building and construction materials 21
297297 such as lumber, construction tools, and win-22
298298 dows. 23
299299 (F) Transportation. 24
300300 (G) Freight. 25
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304304 (H) Storage services. 1
305305 (I) Gasoline and other motor fuels. 2
306306 (g) R
307307 ELATION TOSTATELAW.—Nothing in this Act 3
308308 may be construed to preempt any provision of State law 4
309309 that does not conflict with this Act. 5
310310 Æ
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