Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 124.djvu/3644

 124 STAT. 3618 PUBLIC LAW 111–345—DEC. 29, 2010 Public Law 111–345 111th Congress An Act To protect consumers from certain aggressive sales tactics on the Internet. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restore Online Shoppers’ Con- fidence Act’’. SEC. 2. FINDINGS; DECLARATION OF POLICY. The Congress finds the following: (1) The Internet has become an important channel of com- merce in the United States, accounting for billions of dollars in retail sales every year. Over half of all American adults have now either made an online purchase or an online travel reservation. (2) Consumer confidence is essential to the growth of online commerce. To continue its development as a marketplace, the Internet must provide consumers with clear, accurate informa- tion and give sellers an opportunity to fairly compete with one another for consumers’ business. (3) An investigation by the Senate Committee on Com- merce, Science, and Transportation found abundant evidence that the aggressive sales tactics many companies use against their online customers have undermined consumer confidence in the Internet and thereby harmed the American economy. (4) The Committee showed that, in exchange for ‘‘bounties’’ and other payments, hundreds of reputable online retailers and websites shared their customers’ billing information, including credit card and debit card numbers, with third party sellers through a process known as ‘‘data pass’’. These third party sellers in turn used aggressive, misleading sales tactics to charge millions of American consumers for membership clubs the consumers did not want. (5) Third party sellers offered membership clubs to con- sumers as they were in the process of completing their initial transactions on hundreds of websites. These third party ‘‘post- transaction’’ offers were designed to make consumers think the offers were part of the initial purchase, rather than a new transaction with a new seller. (6) Third party sellers charged millions of consumers for membership clubs without ever obtaining consumers’ billing information, including their credit or debit card information, directly from the consumers. Because third party sellers 15 USC 8401. 15 USC 8401 note. Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. Dec. 29, 2010 [S. 3386]