II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 294
To require origin and location disclosure for new products of Foreign origin
offered for sale on the internet.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY29, 2025
Ms. B
ALDWIN(for herself and Mr. SCOTTof Florida) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To require origin and location disclosure for new products
of Foreign origin offered for sale on the internet.
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 ‘‘Country Of Origin La-4
beling Online Act’’ or the ‘‘COOL Online Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. MANDATORY ORIGIN AND LOCATION DISCLOSURE 6
FOR NEW PRODUCTS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN 7
OFFERED FOR SALE ON THE INTERNET. 8
(a) M
ANDATORYDISCLOSURE.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.— 10
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•S 294 IS
(A) DISCLOSURE.—Subject to subpara-1
graph (B), it shall be unlawful for a product 2
that is marked or required to be marked under 3
section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 4
U.S.C. 1304) to be introduced, sold, advertised, 5
or offered for sale in commerce on an internet 6
website unless the internet website description 7
of the product indicates in a conspicuous 8
place— 9
(i) the country of origin of the prod-10
uct (or, in the case of a multi-sourced 11
product, the countries of origin), in a man-12
ner consistent with the regulations pre-13
scribed under such section 304; and 14
(ii) the country in which the seller of 15
the product has its principal place of busi-16
ness. 17
(B) E
XCLUSIONS.— 18
(i) A
GRICULTURAL PRODUCTS .—The 19
disclosure requirements under clauses (i) 20
and (ii) of subparagraph (A) shall not 21
apply to— 22
(I) a covered commodity (as de-23
fined in section 281 of the Agricul-24
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•S 294 IS
tural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 1
U.S.C. 1638)); 2
(II) a meat or meat food product 3
subject to inspection under the Fed-4
eral Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 5
601 et seq.); 6
(III) a poultry or poultry product 7
subject to inspection under the Poul-8
try Products Inspection Act (21 9
U.S.C. 451 et seq.); or 10
(IV) an egg product subject to 11
regulation under the Egg Products 12
Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 1031 et 13
seq.). 14
(ii) F
OOD AND DRUGS .—The disclo-15
sure requirements under clauses (i) and 16
(ii) of subparagraph (A) shall not apply to 17
a food or drug (as those terms are defined 18
in paragraphs (f) and (g), respectively, of 19
section 201 of the Federal Food, Drug, 20
and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321) that is 21
subject to the jurisdiction of the Food and 22
Drug Administration. 23
(iii) U
SED OR PREVIOUSLY -OWNED 24
ARTICLES.—The disclosure requirements 25
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under clauses (i) and (ii) of subparagraph 1
(A) shall not apply to any used or pre-2
viously-owned article sold by an internet 3
website marketplace or a seller on an inter-4
net website marketplace. For the purposes 5
of the preceding sentence, the term ‘‘used 6
or previously-owned article’’ means an arti-7
cle that was previously sold or offered for 8
sale at retail. 9
(iv) S
MALL SELLER.—The disclosure 10
requirements under clauses (i) and (ii) of 11
subparagraph (A) shall not apply to goods 12
listed by a small seller. For the purposes 13
of the preceding sentence, the term ‘‘small 14
seller’’ means a seller with annual sales of 15
less than $20,000 and fewer than 200 dis-16
crete sales. 17
(C) M
ULTI-SOURCED PRODUCTS .—For 18
purposes of subparagraph (A)(i), a product 19
shall be considered to be a ‘‘multi-sourced prod-20
uct’’ if a seller offers for sale a finished prod-21
uct, identical versions of which are produced in 22
multiple countries. 23
(2) C
ERTAIN DRUG PRODUCTS .—It shall be un-24
lawful for a drug that is not subject to section 25
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503(b)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic 1
Act (21 U.S.C. 353(b)(1)) and that is required to be 2
marked under section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 3
(19 U.S.C. 1304) to be offered for sale in commerce 4
to consumers on an internet website unless the inter-5
net website description of the drug indicates in a 6
conspicuous place the name and place of business of 7
the manufacturer, packer, or distributor that is re-8
quired to appear on the label of the drug in accord-9
ance with section 502(b) of the Federal Food, Drug, 10
and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 352(b)). 11
(3) O
BLIGATION TO PROVIDE .—A manufac-12
turer, importer, distributor, seller, supplier, or pri-13
vate labeler seeking to have a product introduced, 14
sold, advertised, or offered for sale in commerce 15
shall provide the information identified clauses (i) 16
and (ii) of paragraph (1)(A) or paragraph (2), as 17
applicable, to the relevant retailer. 18
(4) S
AFE HARBOR.—A retailer or a seller on an 19
internet website marketplace satisfies the disclosure 20
requirements under clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph 21
(1)(A) or paragraph (2), as applicable, if the disclo-22
sure includes the country of origin and seller infor-23
mation provided by a third-party manufacturer, im-24
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porter, distributor, seller, supplier, or private labeler 1
of the product. 2
(b) E
NFORCEMENT BY THE COMMISSION.— 3
(1) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -4
TICES.—A violation of subsection (a) shall be treated 5
as a violation of a rule prescribed under section 6
18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 7
(15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 8
(2) P
OWERS OF THE COMMISSION .— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Commission shall 10
enforce this section in the same manner, by the 11
same means, and with the same jurisdiction, 12
powers, and duties as though all applicable 13
terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 14
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were in-15
corporated into and made a part of this section. 16
(B) P
RIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .—Any 17
person that violates subsection (a) shall be sub-18
ject to the penalties and entitled to the privi-19
leges and immunities provided in the Federal 20
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) 21
as though all applicable terms and provisions of 22
that Act were incorporated and made part of 23
this section. 24
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(C) AUTHORITY PRESERVED .—Nothing in 1
this section may be construed to limit the au-2
thority of the Commission under any other pro-3
vision of law. 4
(3) I
NTERAGENCY AGREEMENT .—Not later 5
than 6 months after the date of enactment of this 6
section, the Commission, the U.S. Customs and Bor-7
der Protection, and the Department of Agriculture 8
shall— 9
(A) enter into a Memorandum of Under-10
standing or other appropriate agreement for the 11
purpose of providing consistent implementation 12
of this section; and 13
(B) publish such agreement to provide 14
public guidance. 15
(4) D
EFINITION OF COMMISSION .—In this sub-16
section, the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal 17
Trade Commission. 18
(c) L
IMITATION OFLIABILITY.—A retailer or seller 19
is not in violation of subsection (a) if— 20
(1) a third-party manufacturer, distributor, sell-21
er, supplier, or private labeler provided the retailer 22
or seller with a false or deceptive representation as 23
to the country of origin of a product or its parts or 24
processing; and 25
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(2) the retailer or seller— 1
(A) relied in good faith on that representa-2
tion; and 3
(B) took immediate action to remove any 4
such false or deceptive representations upon no-5
tice. 6
(d) A
UTHORITYPRESERVED.—Nothing in this sec-7
tion may be construed to limit the authority of the Depart-8
ment of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, 9
or U.S. Customs and Border Protection under any other 10
provision of law. 11
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall take effect 12
12 months after the date of the publication of the Memo-13
randum of Understanding or agreement under subsection 14
(b)(3). 15
Æ
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