Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026

RIGHT TO HAVE AND OWN PROPERTY

RHOP ACT OF 2026

A comprehensive Federal discussion draft securing durable ownership, continued use, repair, transfer, local control, home equity, and due process in the digital and physical economy

STATUTE | OPTIONAL ARTICLE V RESOLUTION | ANALYSIS | IMPLEMENTATION

PACKAGE TABLE OF CONTENTS

The final document contains the complete statutory text, the optional Article V resolution, legal and fiscal analysis, implementation material, and drafting audit.

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW 8

The problem RHOP addresses 8

What the Act does 8

How the continued-use principle and fourteen specified protections are implemented 10

Principal drafting choices 11

Package structure 11

DRAFTING ASSUMPTIONS AND SCOPE 13

Status and audience 13

Research date 13

Jurisdictional assumptions 13

Persons protected 13

Regulatory philosophy 13

Existing transactions 13

Progressive property framework 14

Appropriations and score 14

Drafting convention 14

ABBREVIATIONS 15

THE RIGHT TO HAVE AND OWN PROPERTY ACT OF 2026 16

DISCUSSION DRAFT 16

119th CONGRESS, 2d Session 17

A BILL 17

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 17

TITLE I - FOUNDATIONS OF DURABLE OWNERSHIP 17

SEC. 101. FINDINGS. 17

SEC. 102. PURPOSES. 17

SEC. 103. CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY AND JURISDICTIONAL NEXUS. 17

SEC. 104. DEFINITIONS. 17

SEC. 105. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP BILL OF RIGHTS. 17

SEC. 106. ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE; ANTI-EVASION. 17

SEC. 107. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 17

SEC. 108. NONWAIVER; INVALID TERMS. 17

SEC. 109. RELATION TO STATE, LOCAL, AND TRIBAL LAW. 17

SEC. 110. SEVERABILITY OF PROTECTED INTERESTS. 17

TITLE II - HONEST SALES AND OWNERSHIP LABELING 17

SEC. 201. CLASSIFICATION BY SUBSTANCE. 17

SEC. 202. PRESUMPTION OF SALE. 17

SEC. 203. HONEST TRANSACTION LABELS. 17

SEC. 204. OWNERSHIP DISCLOSURE AND DURABLE RECEIPT. 17

SEC. 205. HIERARCHY OF REPRESENTATIONS. 17

SEC. 206. BAN ON RETROACTIVE RECLASSIFICATION AND PAYWALLS. 18

SEC. 207. BUNDLES, CAPABILITIES, AND PAID ADD-ONS. 18

SEC. 208. POST-PURCHASE ADVERTISING. 18

SEC. 209. UPSTREAM LICENSES AND ALLOCATION OF COMMERCIAL RISK. 18

SEC. 210. PROHIBITED CONTRACTUAL TERMS AND PRACTICES. 18

SEC. 211. EXCEPTIONS FOR GIFTS, OPEN LICENSES, AND BESPOKE ENTERPRISE TRANSACTIONS. 18

TITLE III - SUBSCRIPTIONS, NEGATIVE OPTIONS, AND RECURRING CHARGES 18

SEC. 301. SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS. 18

SEC. 302. SEPARATE, EXPRESS, AND INFORMED CONSENT. 18

SEC. 303. RENEWAL REMINDERS AND ANNUAL ACCOUNT STATEMENT. 18

SEC. 304. SIMPLE CANCELLATION AND REVOCATION OF AUTHORIZATION. 18

SEC. 305. PRICE INCREASES AND MATERIAL CHANGES. 18

SEC. 306. TRIALS, PROMOTIONS, AND CONVERSION. 18

SEC. 307. REFUNDS AND POST-CANCELLATION CHARGES. 18

SEC. 308. FAILURE TO USE; DORMANCY; PAUSE RIGHTS. 18

SEC. 309. DEATH, INCAPACITY, MILITARY ORDERS, DISASTERS, AND HARDSHIP. 18

SEC. 310. DATA, CONTENT, AND PURCHASED-PROPERTY ACCESS AFTER CANCELLATION. 18

SEC. 311. DUTIES OF BILLING INTERMEDIARIES AND PLATFORMS. 18

SEC. 312. RECORDS AND BURDEN OF PROOF. 18

SEC. 313. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAW. 18

TITLE IV - DIGITAL GOODS, SOFTWARE, ACCOUNTS, AND DIGITAL PROPERTY 18

SEC. 401. SCOPE; PROTECTED DIGITAL PROPERTY INTEREST. 18

SEC. 402. DURABLE ACCESS, ENTITLEMENT RECORDS, AND AUTHENTICATION. 18

SEC. 403. ACCOUNT PROPERTY VAULT. 18

SEC. 404. ACCOUNT RESTRICTION, SUSPENSION, AND TERMINATION PROCEDURES. 18

SEC. 405. SEPARATION OF CONDUCT SANCTIONS FROM PROPERTY CONFISCATION. 18

SEC. 406. REMOVAL CLAIMS, UPSTREAM RIGHTS, AND PLATFORM GUARANTIES. 18

SEC. 407. PROTECTED DIGITAL BASELINE; UPDATES AND COMPATIBILITY. 18

SEC. 408. LIVE-SERVICE, SHARED-WORLD, AND COMMUNITY-HOSTED PRODUCTS. 18

SEC. 409. PRESERVATION OF PERSONAL DIGITAL PROPERTY. 18

SEC. 410. SAFETY, SECURITY, PRIVACY, FRAUD, AND LEGAL-COMPLIANCE MEASURES. 18

SEC. 411. PROHIBITED DIGITAL-PROPERTY PRACTICES. 18

SEC. 412. ALLOCATION, RECORDS, AND RELATION TO OTHER TITLES. 18

TITLE V - CONTINUED USE AFTER COMPANY FAILURE AND END OF SERVICE 18

SEC. 501. CONTINUITY DUTY AND COVERED SELLER-CONTROLLED DEPENDENCIES. 19

SEC. 502. CONTINUITY ESCROW, TESTING, AND FINANCIAL ASSURANCE. 19

SEC. 503. END-OF-SERVICE TRIGGERS AND NOTICE. 19

SEC. 504. CONTINUITY LADDER AND OWNER REMEDIES. 19

SEC. 505. COMPANY FAILURE, ABANDONMENT, AND EMERGENCY STEWARDSHIP. 19

SEC. 506. END-OF-LIFE UNLOCKING AND RELEASE. 19

SEC. 507. LIVE-SERVICE WIND-DOWN AND COMMUNITY HOSTING. 19

SEC. 508. SUCCESSORS, ASSET TRANSFERS, AND UPSTREAM LICENSING. 19

SEC. 509. BANKRUPTCY AND STATUTORY TRUST RULES. 19

SEC. 510. CONFIDENTIALITY, CYBERSECURITY, AND RESPONSIBLE RELEASE. 19

SEC. 511. LEGACY SYSTEMS AND TRANSITION. 19

SEC. 512. LIMITS AND ENFORCEMENT. 19

TITLE VI - PURCHASED HARDWARE CAPABILITIES, LOCAL CONTROL, SOFTWARE CHOICE, ADVERTISING, ARTIFICIAL DEGRADATION, AND DURABILITY 19

SEC. 601. OWNERSHIP OF PURCHASED HARDWARE CAPABILITIES. 19

SEC. 602. LOCAL CONTROL AND OFFLINE OPERATION OF CONNECTED PRODUCTS. 19

SEC. 603. ADVERTISING AND COMMERCIAL MESSAGES IN PURCHASED PRODUCTS. 19

SEC. 604. OBJECTIVE DURABILITY AND MINIMUM SUPPORT PERIODS. 19

SEC. 605. SECURITY, FUNCTIONAL, AND COMPATIBILITY SUPPORT. 19

SEC. 606. REMOTE ACTIONS, CHANGE LOGS, AND OWNER CONTROL. 19

SEC. 607. SOFTWARE VERSION CHOICE, DEFERRAL, REINSTALLATION, AND ROLLBACK. 19

SEC. 608. ARTIFICIAL DEGRADATION AND PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE. 19

SEC. 609. MEASURABLE SAFETY, CYBERSECURITY, PRIVACY, AND LEGAL EXCEPTIONS. 19

SEC. 610. DURABILITY DISCLOSURES, TESTING, AND RECORDS. 19

SEC. 611. REMEDIES AND CONSTRUCTION. 19

TITLE VII - REPAIR, THIRD-PARTY CONSUMABLES, PARTS PAIRING, WARRANTIES, AND SECTOR SAFETY 19

SEC. 701. RIGHT TO DIAGNOSE, MAINTAIN, REPAIR, AND MODIFY. 19

SEC. 702. PARTS, TOOLS, DOCUMENTATION, DIAGNOSTICS, AND SOFTWARE. 19

SEC. 703. SERIALIZATION, PARTS PAIRING, ACTIVATION, AND WARNINGS. 19

SEC. 704. THIRD-PARTY, REFILLED, REMANUFACTURED, AND RECYCLED CONSUMABLES. 19

SEC. 705. WARRANTY PROTECTION AND MAGNUSON-MOSS AMENDMENT. 19

SEC. 706. SECTOR SAFETY; NO CATEGORICAL LOOPHOLE. 19

SEC. 707. CYBERSECURITY, PRIVACY, AND REPAIR DATA. 19

SEC. 708. INDEPENDENT PROVIDER DUTIES AND NONDISCRIMINATION. 19

SEC. 709. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, ENVIRONMENT, AND COMPETITION. 20

SEC. 710. RECORDS, BURDENS, AND REMEDIES. 20

SEC. 711. PATENT EXHAUSTION, PERMISSIBLE REPAIR, AND RECONSTRUCTION. 20

TITLE VIII - TRANSFER, RESALE, LENDING, INHERITANCE, EXPORT, INTEROPERABILITY, AND CONFORMING DIGITAL-LAW AMENDMENTS 20

SEC. 801. RIGHT TO TRANSFER, RESELL, GIVE, AND LEND. 20

SEC. 802. VERIFIED DIGITAL TRANSFER AND TEMPORARY LENDING. 20

SEC. 803. INHERITANCE, FIDUCIARIES, AND LEGACY ACCESS. 20

SEC. 804. EXPORT OF PERSONAL DIGITAL PROPERTY AND ACCOUNT VALUE. 20

SEC. 805. INTEROPERABILITY AND PROTECTION AGAINST ECOSYSTEM LOCK-IN. 20

SEC. 806. PRIVACY, SECURITY, AND TRANSFER RECORDS. 20

SEC. 807. AMENDMENT TO SECTION 109 OF TITLE 17. 20

SEC. 808. AMENDMENT TO SECTION 117 OF TITLE 17. 20

SEC. 809. PERMANENT AMENDMENT TO SECTION 1201 OF TITLE 17. 20

SEC. 810. AMENDMENT TO SECTION 301 OF TITLE 17. 20

SEC. 811. NARROW COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT SAFE HARBOR. 20

SEC. 812. CONSTRUCTION, IMPLEMENTATION, AND ENFORCEMENT. 20

APPENDIX - PRIMARY-SOURCE RESEARCH NOTES FOR TITLES IV THROUGH VIII 86

TITLE IX - OWNERSHIP-DIRECTED FINANCING, REPOSSESSION, AND BANKRUPTCY SECURITY 87

SEC. 901. DEFINITIONS. 87

SEC. 902. OWNERSHIP-DIRECTED TRANSACTIONS TREATED AS CREDIT SALES. 88

SEC. 903. SHOPPING-STAGE AND CONTRACT DISCLOSURES. 89

SEC. 904. PRICE, EQUITY, EARLY PURCHASE, CURE, AND REINSTATEMENT. 89

SEC. 905. REMOTE DISABLING AND LOCATION TRACKING. 90

SEC. 906. UNIFORM MINIMUM REPOSSESSION PROTECTIONS. 91

SEC. 907. WARRANTIES, TITLE, AND SATISFACTION. 92

SEC. 908. BANKRUPTCY OWNERSHIP FLOOR. 93

SEC. 909. RULEMAKING; MODEL FORMS; DATABASES. 93

SEC. 910. ENFORCEMENT; RELATION TO OTHER LAW. 94

TITLE X - SECURE HOME, LAND, AND COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP 95

SEC. 1001. DEFINITIONS AND SCOPE. 95

SEC. 1002. CONTRACTS FOR DEED ARE MORTGAGES IN SUBSTANCE. 95

SEC. 1003. MANUFACTURED-HOME COMMUNITY PURCHASE OPPORTUNITY. 97

SEC. 1004. HEIRS PROPERTY AND FAMILY TITLE SECURITY. 98

SEC. 1005. FAIR TAX-FORECLOSURE PROCESS AND SURPLUS. 99

SEC. 1006. VALUATION INTEGRITY AND RECONSIDERATION. 99

SEC. 1007. FORECLOSURE AUTHORITY, DOCUMENTATION, AND LOSS MITIGATION. 100

SEC. 1008. OWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY FUND. 101

SEC. 1009. COORDINATION WITH THE 21ST CENTURY ROAD TO HOUSING ACT. 101

SEC. 1010. ENFORCEMENT AND STATE-LAW SAVINGS. 102

TITLE XI - PROPERTY SEIZURE, FORFEITURE, AND PUBLIC-CONFISCATION REFORM 103

SEC. 1101. CONVICTION REQUIRED FOR FEDERAL FORFEITURE. 103

SEC. 1102. WARRANT, RECEIPT, AND PROMPT RETENTION HEARING. 103

SEC. 1103. GOVERNMENT BURDENS; INNOCENT OWNERS; COUNSEL. 104

SEC. 1104. STATUTORY PROPORTIONALITY AND ESSENTIAL PROPERTY. 104

SEC. 1105. FEDERAL ADOPTION AND EQUITABLE-SHARING ANTI-EVASION. 105

SEC. 1106. REVENUE NEUTRALITY; VICTIMS FIRST. 105

SEC. 1107. CARE, RETURN, REPAIR, INTEREST, AND LOSS OF USE. 105

SEC. 1108. WAIVERS, SETTLEMENTS, TRANSPARENCY, AND AUDIT. 106

SEC. 1109. AMENDMENT TO CAFRA; CONSTRUCTION. 106

TITLE XII - PAID STORED VALUE, PLATFORM CREDITS, VIRTUAL UNITS, AND CUSTODIAL DIGITAL PROPERTY 108

SEC. 1201. DEFINITIONS AND REGULATORY BOUNDARIES. 108

SEC. 1202. PURCHASED VALUE DOES NOT EXPIRE OR ERODE. 108

SEC. 1203. REDEMPTION, REFUNDS, AND TRANSFER. 109

SEC. 1204. CUSTOMER OWNERSHIP, SEGREGATION, AND USE OF CUSTODIAL PROPERTY. 110

SEC. 1205. INSOLVENCY AND SUCCESSOR OBLIGATIONS. 111

SEC. 1206. ACCOUNT TERMINATION AND CONDUCT SEPARATION. 111

SEC. 1207. DISCLOSURES, RECORDS, AND AUDITS. 111

SEC. 1208. UNCLAIMED PROPERTY, TAX, GAMING, AND INTELLECTUAL-PROPERTY SAVINGS. 111

SEC. 1209. RULEMAKING, ENFORCEMENT, AND STATE LAW. 112

TITLE XIII - OWNERSHIP-PRESERVING PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND PUBLIC ACCESS 113

SEC. 1301. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP-FIRST PROCUREMENT POLICY. 113

SEC. 1302. REQUIRED CONTRACT CLAUSES. 114

SEC. 1303. FEDERAL DATA AND DIGITAL PROPERTY EXIT RIGHTS. 114

SEC. 1304. LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES, SCHOOLS, AND CULTURAL MEMORY. 115

SEC. 1305. FEDERALLY FUNDED AND FEDERALLY ASSISTED PRODUCTS. 116

SEC. 1306. FEDERAL DEVICE REUSE AND DONATION. 116

SEC. 1307. PROCUREMENT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY. 117

TITLE XIV - ENFORCEMENT, REMEDIES, AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE 118

SEC. 1401. UNLAWFUL ACTS. 118

SEC. 1402. FEDERAL PUBLIC ENFORCEMENT. 119

SEC. 1403. STATE, TERRITORIAL, AND TRIBAL PUBLIC ENFORCEMENT. 120

SEC. 1404. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION. 120

SEC. 1405. CIVIL PENALTIES AND RESTITUTION. 121

SEC. 1406. RESPONSIBILITY AMONG MULTIPLE ACTORS. 122

SEC. 1407. NOTICE, CURE, AND EMERGENCY RELIEF. 123

SEC. 1408. LIMITATIONS, ACCRUAL, AND PRESERVATION. 124

SEC. 1409. ARBITRATION, FORUM, AND COLLECTIVE RIGHTS. 124

SEC. 1410. WHISTLEBLOWER AND ANTI-RETALIATION PROTECTIONS. 125

SEC. 1411. CONSUMER DEFENSES AND BURDENS. 125

SEC. 1412. ENFORCEMENT TRANSPARENCY AND COMPLAINT DATA. 126

SEC. 1413. NO SELF-FUNDING INCENTIVE. 126

SEC. 1414. CRIMINAL OFFENSES FOR DESTRUCTION AND FRAUD. 127

SEC. 1415. FOREIGN SELLERS, IMPORTERS, AND SERVICE OF PROCESS. 127

TITLE XV - ADMINISTRATION, STANDARDS, AND OWNERSHIP INFRASTRUCTURE 129

SEC. 1501. DEFINITIONS AND LEAD AGENCY. 129

SEC. 1502. OFFICE OF OWNERSHIP AND DURABILITY. 129

SEC. 1503. INTERAGENCY OWNERSHIP COUNCIL. 130

SEC. 1504. RULEMAKING STANDARDS AND LIMITS. 130

SEC. 1505. TEMPORARY SAFETY AND CYBERSECURITY ORDERS. 131

SEC. 1506. OWNERSHIP RESEARCH, TESTING, AND METRICS. 132

SEC. 1507. OWNERSHIP INFRASTRUCTURE GRANTS. 133

SEC. 1508. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 133

SEC. 1509. OVERSIGHT, AUDIT, AND PROGRAM INTEGRITY. 134

SEC. 1510. INTERNATIONAL AND INTERSTATE COORDINATION. 135

TITLE XVI - TRANSITION, CONFORMING RULES, AND EFFECTIVE DATES 136

SEC. 1601. APPLICATION TO EXISTING AND FUTURE TRANSACTIONS. 136

SEC. 1602. GENERAL EFFECTIVE DATES. 136

SEC. 1603. LEGACY CONTINUITY REGISTRATION. 138

SEC. 1604. MODEL COMPLIANCE AND LIMITED SAFE HARBORS. 138

SEC. 1605. EFFECT ON OTHER FEDERAL LAW. 138

SEC. 1606. NO IMPLIED GOVERNMENTAL OR CORPORATE PROPERTY RIGHT. 139

SEC. 1607. SEVERABILITY. 139

SEC. 1608. INFLATION AND THRESHOLD ADJUSTMENTS. 140

SEC. 1609. DEADLINE ENFORCEMENT AND FAILURE TO ISSUE RULES. 140

SEC. 1610. PERIODIC REVIEW; NO SUNSET. 141

SEPARATE OPTIONAL COMPANION - NOT PART OF THE RHOP ACT 142

Discussion Draft 142

Proposed Joint Resolution, Property Autonomy Amendment, and Constitutional Analysis 142

PART I - SEPARATE PROPOSED JOINT RESOLUTION 143

119th CONGRESS 143

2d Session 143

H. J. RES. ___ 143

“ARTICLE - 143

PART II - WHY THE AMENDMENT IS OPTIONAL AND HOW ARTICLE V WORKS 147

PART III - CONSTITUTIONAL AND FEDERAL-LAW ANALYSIS OF THE ORDINARY RHOP ACT 148

A. Bottom-line assessment 148

B. Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause 148

C. Intellectual Property Clause, copyright preemption, and technological controls 149

D. Bankruptcy, insolvency, and company-failure continuity 151

E. Spending power, federal programs, state action, and Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment 151

F. First Amendment: disclosures, advertising, accounts, and compelled service 152

G. Takings, trade secrets, due process, and retroactivity 152

H. Home equity, civil forfeiture, and the current Tyler-Pung rule 153

I. Arbitration, class waivers, and jury waivers 153

J. Article III, private rights, agency adjudication, and the Seventh Amendment 154

K. Sovereign immunity, preemption, and anti-commandeering 154

L. Delegation, major questions, independent review, and FTC structure after Slaughter 155

PART IV - DRAFTING SAFEGUARDS AND RISK MATRIX 156

A. Safeguards to carry into the statutory text 156

B. Risk matrix 156

C. Conclusion 157

ENDNOTES - PRIMARY SOURCES 159

SECTION-BY-SECTION COMMENTARY 161

Reader guide 161

TITLE I - FOUNDATIONS OF DURABLE OWNERSHIP 162

TITLE II - HONEST SALES AND OWNERSHIP LABELING 164

TITLE III - SUBSCRIPTIONS, NEGATIVE OPTIONS, AND RECURRING CHARGES 166

TITLE IV - DIGITAL GOODS, SOFTWARE, ACCOUNTS, AND DIGITAL PROPERTY 168

TITLE V - CONTINUED USE AFTER COMPANY FAILURE AND END OF SERVICE 170

TITLE VI - PURCHASED HARDWARE CAPABILITIES, LOCAL CONTROL, SOFTWARE CHOICE, ADVERTISING, ARTIFICIAL DEGRADATION, AND DURABILITY 172

TITLE VII - REPAIR, THIRD-PARTY CONSUMABLES, PARTS PAIRING, WARRANTIES, AND SECTOR SAFETY 174

TITLE VIII - TRANSFER, RESALE, LENDING, INHERITANCE, EXPORT, INTEROPERABILITY, AND CONFORMING DIGITAL-LAW AMENDMENTS 176

TITLE IX - OWNERSHIP-DIRECTED FINANCING, REPOSSESSION, AND BANKRUPTCY SECURITY 178

TITLE X - SECURE HOME, LAND, AND COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP 180

TITLE XI - PROPERTY SEIZURE, FORFEITURE, AND PUBLIC-CONFISCATION REFORM 182

TITLE XII - PAID STORED VALUE, PLATFORM CREDITS, VIRTUAL UNITS, AND CUSTODIAL DIGITAL PROPERTY 184

TITLE XIII - OWNERSHIP-PRESERVING PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND PUBLIC ACCESS 186

TITLE XIV - ENFORCEMENT, REMEDIES, AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE 188

TITLE XV - ADMINISTRATION, STANDARDS, AND OWNERSHIP INFRASTRUCTURE 191

TITLE XVI - TRANSITION, CONFORMING RULES, AND EFFECTIVE DATES 193

POLICY, FISCAL, IMPLEMENTATION, AND QUALITY-CONTROL BACK MATTER 195

I. POLICY OVERVIEW AND KEY CHOICES 196

A. Legislative objective 196

B. Core policy choices 196

II. ILLUSTRATIVE FISCAL AND ECONOMIC NOTE 199

A. Status, price basis, and scoring conventions 199

B. Authorized program structure 199

C. Transparent outlay assumptions 200

D. Budget summary at 1, 5, 10, and 30 years 200

E. Federal receipts and intragovernmental effects 201

F. Private compliance cost 201

G. Consumer, small-business, and economy-wide benefit 202

H. Major fiscal sensitivities 203

III. PHASED IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP 204

Phase 0: Enactment through day 90 204

Phase 1: Day 91 through day 180 204

Phase 2: Month 6 through month 12 204

Phase 3: Month 12 through month 18 205

Phase 4: Month 18 through month 24 205

Phase 5: Years 3 through 5 206

Phase 6: Years 5 through 10 and beyond 206

IV. AGENCY RESPONSIBILITY MATRIX 207

V. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS 209

Consumers and households 209

Low-income, rural, Tribal, disability, veteran, and historically excluded communities 209

Digital storefronts, platforms, game publishers, and cloud providers 209

Manufacturers and authorized service networks 209

Independent repair, refurbishment, recycling, and workforce organizations 209

Creators, publishers, copyright owners, and collective licensing organizations 209

Cybersecurity researchers and security teams 210

Lenders, rent-to-own firms, servicers, repossession agents, and marketplaces 210

Home sellers, mortgage servicers, appraisers, park owners, CLTs, CDFIs, and resident associations 210

Law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors, victims, and innocent owners 210

States, territories, local governments, and Tribes 210

Federal agencies, libraries, schools, archives, and taxpayers 210

Labor and environmental organizations 211

VI. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 212

1. Does RHOP ban subscriptions? 212

2. When does a transaction count as a sale? 212

3. Can a company simply rename every purchase a license? 212

4. Must a seller run a server forever? 212

5. What happens if an upstream studio or licensor withdraws rights? 212

6. How are live-service and multiplayer games treated? 212

7. Can a platform ban a user for harassment or fraud? 212

8. Does RHOP protect fraudulently acquired property? 213

9. Can advertising appear on a purchased device? 213

10. Does local control mean every smart product must work fully offline? 213

11. May an owner refuse security updates forever? 213

12. Does the repair right allow disabling emissions or safety controls? 213

13. Must a manufacturer disclose all source code and trade secrets? 213

14. Are serialized or paired parts always prohibited? 213

15. Does independent repair void the warranty? 214

16. Can consumers use third-party ink, batteries, filters, or other consumables? 214

17. Does RHOP legalize piracy or public redistribution? 214

18. How does continuity escrow avoid creating a cybersecurity vulnerability? 214

19. Does RHOP apply to products purchased before enactment? 214

20. How does the bill treat rent-to-own? 214

21. Can a lender remotely disable a vehicle for a missed payment? 214

22. Does Title X duplicate the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act? 215

23. Does every civil forfeiture require a conviction? 215

24. Do paid gift cards and platform credits expire? 215

25. Who can enforce RHOP, and do arbitration or stronger State-law rules survive? 215

VII. ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED 216

Disclosure or cancellation reform alone 216

Agency rulemaking without a detailed statute 216

Complete preemption or direct State-process control 216

Permanent service or refund-only end-of-life relief 216

Categorical safety exemptions 216

Public enforcement only or mandatory arbitration 216

Reenacting the institutional-investor housing restriction 216

Mandatory spending rather than authorization 216

Treating all virtual assets alike 217

VIII. FORMAL QUALITY-CHECK AUDIT 218

A. Audit status 218

B. Coverage audit 218

C. Completed assembly controls 219

D. Critical and high-priority conforming items 220

E. Loophole audit 220

F. Internal-consistency audit 221

G. Constitutional and administrative risk audit 222

H. Fiscal and program-integrity audit 222

I. Final validation checklist 222

J. Quality-check conclusion 223

CONSOLIDATED RESEARCH NOTES AND AUTHORITIES 224

FINANCING, HOMEOWNERSHIP, FORFEITURE, AND STORED VALUE 224

End of package table of contents.

The problem RHOP addresses

The familiar word “ownership” increasingly describes a transaction in which the buyer bears the price and risk of ownership while the seller retains the practical power of revocation. A purchaser may pay once for a movie, game, software feature, smart appliance, vehicle function, farm-equipment capability, printer, mobility device, or cloud-connected household product, yet lose it because an account is terminated, a license expires, an authentication server closes, a company fails, a part is not cryptographically approved, or a business decides to impose a subscription.

The problem is not that subscriptions, rentals, cloud services, or technological protection measures are inherently illegitimate. Each can provide real value. The problem is the mismatch between the transaction prominently offered and the control actually retained. RHOP therefore begins with an honest-classification rule: a seller may offer a sale, subscription, rental, time-limited license, or metered service, but must name and perform the transaction it chose. “License,” “service,” “terms may change,” and comparable boilerplate cannot defeat a one-time, indefinite transaction marketed and reasonably understood as a sale.

Current Federal law addresses pieces of the problem but leaves important gaps. The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act governs online negative options, but the 2024 Federal Trade Commission Click-to-Cancel rule was vacated in 2025 and the Commission opened a new rulemaking inquiry in March 2026. California’s AB 2426, effective in 2025, restricts use of “buy” and “purchase” for revocable digital licenses without specified disclosures, but disclosure alone does not create durable ownership. Copyright first sale generally does not authorize the reproduction technically necessary to transfer a downloaded file, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s temporary exemptions do not comprehensively protect the tools needed for repair, interoperability, continuity, or abandoned products. Warranty law restricts some branded tie-ins but does not generally require parts, diagnostics, pairing credentials, or local operation.

The consequences are concrete rather than speculative. The United Kingdom PlayStation notice in effect on the research date states that hundreds of previously purchased StudioCanal titles are scheduled for removal beginning September 1, 2026 because of licensing arrangements. The Federal Trade Commission has warned that a “buy” button may conceal a license and that licensing changes can render access worthless. Its 2024 review of 184 connected products found that 163 product pages - 88.6 percent - did not disclose how long the maker would provide software updates. These are market-design problems that individual fine-print review cannot solve.

RHOP supplies a Federal floor of practical ownership, while preserving stronger State, local, and Tribal law.

What the Act does

The Act establishes a Federal Ownership Bill of Rights and implements it through detailed, self-executing duties. The central protections are:

Honest transaction identity. A “buy” or one-time indefinite transaction is presumptively a sale. Mixed products must separately identify purchased and subscription components. Prominent promises control over inconsistent boilerplate.

No post-sale rent. A seller may charge for a genuinely new, severable service, but may not move a purchased hardware capability or core function behind a recurring paywall.

Subscription consent and easy exit. Enrollment requires separate, informed consent. Renewal reminders, annual account statements, same-means cancellation, direct cancellation controls, renewed consent for material changes, automatic refunds, dormancy protection, and intermediary stop-payment controls are statutory requirements - not matters left entirely to agency discretion.

Durable digital ownership. A purchased digital good receives durable access, an account-independent receipt, lawful backup, practical offline or successor access, and protection from unilateral removal. Platforms and upstream rights holders may allocate risk among themselves but may not shift the failure of their licensing arrangements to the buyer.

Property survives account discipline. A platform may proportionately restrict posting, messaging, marketplace, matchmaking, or community privileges for misconduct. It may not confiscate unrelated purchased goods, stored value, saves, creative work, or personal data. Read-only access, a property vault, export, transfer, local use, replacement, or refund must remain available as appropriate.

Continued use after company failure. Covered products require an end-of-life plan. Objective trigger events activate a continuity ladder: maintain or transfer service; enable local operation; unlock authentication; release a secure interface, server component, or escrow material; migrate the entitlement; provide a comparable replacement; and only then use a monetary remedy if practical continued use is impossible.

No artificial degradation or feature confiscation. Remote bricking, unconsented throttling, removal of advertised capability, forced advertising, and degradative updates are prohibited. Narrow, evidence-based safety, cybersecurity, privacy, emissions, accessibility, and legal-compliance measures remain permitted, with restoration or an equivalent remedy where feasible.

Local control and version choice. Core functions of connected products must operate locally where reasonably feasible. Owners may defer noncritical updates, retain or reinstall supported versions, and roll back changes, while truly vulnerable clients may be isolated from a protected network on documented grounds.

Repair, parts, and consumables. Owners and independent repairers receive diagnostics, manuals, tools, parts, calibration, pairing, and reset functions on fair and reasonable terms. A product may identify an unverified part, but may not reject it merely because of origin. Warranty exclusions must be causally tied to actual harm.

Transfer, inheritance, and portability. Owners may sell, give, lend, and devise lawfully acquired property. Copyright amendments authorize the incidental reproduction necessary for a verified one-owner/one-usable-copy digital transfer. Data, settings, saves, receipts, and user-created work must be exportable in usable formats, subject to others’ privacy and intellectual-property rights.

Fair ownership financing. Rent-to-own, lease-to-own, contract-for-deed, and functionally equivalent arrangements are regulated by economic substance. Purchasers receive total-cost and credit disclosures, accumulated ownership credit, early payoff, cure and reinstatement, proportionate repossession, return of personal effects and data, and recovery of sale surplus.

Home, land, and community ownership. RHOP supplements the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act enacted July 11, 2026. It does not recreate that Act’s institutional-investor restriction or existing housing programs. It fills identified gaps through contract-for-deed mortgage treatment, manufactured-home-community resident purchase opportunities, heirs-property and title-clearing support, fair tax-sale process, appraisal accountability, first-generation ownership, and community land-trust and shared-equity infrastructure.

No profit-driven confiscation. Federal civil forfeiture generally requires conviction, a demonstrated nexus, clear and convincing proof, prompt judicial review, robust innocent-owner protections, counsel in defined hardship cases, proportionality, property return and repair, and an end to equitable-sharing workarounds. Enforcement proceeds do not automatically finance the seizing office.

Multiple durable enforcers. The FTC coordinates commercial implementation, but the design does not depend on an independent or politically insulated Commission. The Department of Justice seeks civil penalties in court; sector agencies act within bounded jurisdiction; State and Tribal public enforcers may sue; and injured owners have an express private right. Legal damages and civil-penalty liability remain in Article III courts with jury rights preserved.

Access to collective justice. Predispute arbitration, jury-waiver, and class- or collective-action waiver provisions are ineffective at the consumer’s election notwithstanding the Federal Arbitration Act. Voluntary, informed post-dispute arbitration remains available.

Ownership-first public purchasing. Federal procurement evaluates life-cycle cost, durable rights, local operation, repairability, open formats, exit, and continuity. Public libraries and archives receive preservation pathways, and usable Federal devices are repaired, securely reused, transferred, or donated before destruction.

How the continued-use principle and fourteen specified protections are implemented

Principal drafting choices

A sale is not an eternal service guarantee

RHOP does not require a company or successor to operate the exact same network forever. It requires the seller to design and perform a durable remedy proportionate to the promise it made. For inherently shared or live services, the remedy may be local or community hosting, an interoperable server component, a successor service, a comparable replacement, or a use-adjusted refund. A seller cannot simply retain the sale price and delete the benefit because continued commercial hosting became inconvenient.

Safety and security exceptions are real but auditable

An ironclad statute must close both sides of a loophole. A blanket “safety” exception would swallow repair and version choice; an absolute right to run unsafe code could endanger patients, drivers, networks, and bystanders. RHOP assigns the burden to the restricting actor and requires a documented material risk, an effective and tailored response, no primarily anticompetitive purpose, time limitation where appropriate, and a safe alternative where feasible. Emergency sector-agency orders are temporary and reviewable.

Copyright ownership remains distinct from copy ownership

Buying a book, game, film, program, or digital model does not convey authorship or the copyright. RHOP instead defines ownership of the particular copy or durable entitlement and amends copyright law only as needed for use, backup, repair, preservation, interoperability, and verified transfer. The one-owner/one-usable-copy rule does not authorize public distribution.

Strong remedies require concrete injury

The Act expressly creates private rights but respects current Article III standing doctrine. Money damages require concrete loss - money, access, functionality, repair choice, data, privacy, equity, time, or a comparable protected interest. Bare notice defects remain enforceable prospectively and by public authorities. Statutory minimums measure real but difficult-to-price injury and are subject to proportionality.

The Federal floor preserves progressive State experimentation

Preemption is limited to physical impossibility of simultaneous compliance. Higher State or Tribal standards, longer warranties, broader repair laws, stronger automatic-renewal rules, consumer remedies, privacy rights, antitrust law, and property-law causes of action remain available. The bill regulates commercial actors directly and makes State enforcement optional, avoiding commandeering.

Package structure

The package contains two legally distinct proposals:

The RHOP Act of 2026, an ordinary Act of Congress grounded primarily in the Commerce Clause and reinforced by the Copyright, Patent, Bankruptcy, Spending, Federal Property, and Necessary and Proper Clauses.

The optional Property Autonomy Amendment, proposed in a separate joint resolution under Article V. It cannot be enacted through the ordinary bill. Its narrow wording protects natural persons’ consumer property and fully paid durable-use entitlements while preserving taxation, labor, civil-rights, antitrust, public-health, environmental, land-use, and comparable democratic regulation.

The statutory bill is designed to operate without the amendment. The amendment is a durability option for lawmakers who want an express constitutional foundation against future governmental and commercial hollowing-out of consumer ownership.

Status and audience

This is a policy-complete discussion draft, not a claim that the text has been reviewed by the House or Senate Offices of Legislative Counsel, scored by the Congressional Budget Office or Joint Committee on Taxation, or enacted. Before introduction, official counsel should conform cross-references, placement in the United States Code, committee jurisdiction, appropriations structure, and interactions with any legislation enacted after August 14, 2026.

Research date

The legal baseline is August 14, 2026. The draft accounts for, among other developments, Public Law 119-101; the 2026 FTC negative-option advance notice; the 2026 Supreme Court decisions in *Trump v. Slaughter*, *Pung v. Isabella County*, *Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections*, *Learning Resources v. Trump*, and *Sripetch v. SEC*; the 2025 decision in *FCC v. Consumers’ Research*; and the 2024-2026 Federal right-to-repair and connected-device record described in the authorities appendix.

Jurisdictional assumptions

The bill covers transactions and conduct in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, use of interstate channels and instrumentalities, Federal procurement and assistance, and specified copyright, patent, bankruptcy, communications, and Federal-property matters. Purely local noneconomic family transfers remain governed by State property law unless a specific Federal nexus exists.

Persons protected

The primary beneficiary is a natural person acting for personal, family, household, educational, creative, agricultural, or home-based-business purposes. A small business, farm, cooperative, nonprofit, or independent creator with no more than 100 employees and no more than $15 million in adjusted annual receipts also receives end-user protections. Large negotiated enterprise transactions may vary specified form rules, but not downstream consumer rights.

Regulatory philosophy

The Act decides the main policy questions in statutory text. Agencies may update technical formats, protocols, product schedules, and performance metrics under detailed criteria. The failure to issue a rule does not suspend an objectively administrable duty. Private standards bodies advise; they do not make Federal law.

Existing transactions

No new monetary liability attaches solely to conduct completed before enactment. New post-effective-date acts - renewals, charges, removals, remote disablement, refusals to export, end-of-service events, repossessions, seizures, and foreclosure sales - are covered even if the original transaction predates the Act. Affirmative legacy escrow and technical obligations receive phased alternatives to reduce serious reliance, trade-secret, and Takings concerns.

Progressive property framework

The bill treats ownership as a source of household autonomy and bargaining power, not as a vehicle to constitutionalize corporate deregulation. It expressly does not create a corporate right against taxation, labor protections, civil-rights law, environmental rules, health and safety regulation, antitrust law, zoning, rent and tenant protections, or eminent domain with just compensation. Public forfeiture reform is paired with housing, heirs-property, shared-equity, manufactured-community, repair-workforce, and public-access investment.

Appropriations and score

Authorizations are stated in nominal statutory dollars. The accompanying fiscal note converts the proposal to constant 2026 dollars and presents ranges for 1-, 5-, 10-, and 30-year horizons. It is an analytic estimate, not a CBO or JCT score. The bill contains no new tax provision and treats penalty receipts conservatively rather than as a guaranteed offset.

Drafting convention

“Shall” states a duty; “may” states discretion; “including” is nonexclusive; singular includes plural where context permits. Defined terms apply throughout unless a title provides a specific definition. Cross-references are intentionally explicit because current administrative-law doctrine does not assume that ambiguity delegates major policy to an agency.

COMPLETE STATUTORY TEXT

Legislative status: discussion draft. This text is designed as a freestanding Federal Act. The constitutional proposal later in this package is a separate Article V joint resolution and is not a title of this bill.

119th CONGRESS, 2d Session

A BILL

To secure durable and meaningful ownership of property acquired in commerce; to require honest characterization of sales, rentals, licenses, and subscriptions; to preserve the continued use, repair, transfer, and local control of lawfully acquired goods; to protect home, household, and digital property from confiscation and artificial degradation; and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

(a) SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026” or the “RHOP Act of 2026”.

(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.

The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

TITLE I - FOUNDATIONS OF DURABLE OWNERSHIP

Sec. 101. Findings.

Sec. 102. Purposes.

Sec. 103. Constitutional authority and jurisdictional nexus.

Sec. 104. Definitions.

Sec. 105. Federal Ownership Bill of Rights.

Sec. 106. Economic substance; anti-evasion.

Sec. 107. Rules of construction.

Sec. 108. Nonwaiver; invalid terms.

Sec. 109. Relation to State, local, and Tribal law.

Sec. 110. Severability of protected interests.

TITLE II - HONEST SALES AND OWNERSHIP LABELING

Sec. 201. Classification by substance.

Sec. 202. Presumption of sale.

Sec. 203. Honest transaction labels.

Sec. 204. Ownership disclosure and durable receipt.

Sec. 205. Hierarchy of representations.

Sec. 206. Ban on retroactive reclassification and paywalls.

Sec. 207. Bundles, capabilities, and paid add-ons.

Sec. 208. Post-purchase advertising.

Sec. 209. Upstream licenses and allocation of commercial risk.

Sec. 210. Prohibited contractual terms and practices.

Sec. 211. Exceptions for gifts, open licenses, and bespoke enterprise transactions.

TITLE III - SUBSCRIPTIONS, NEGATIVE OPTIONS, AND RECURRING CHARGES

Sec. 301. Scope and definitions.

Sec. 302. Separate, express, and informed consent.

Sec. 303. Renewal reminders and annual account statement.

Sec. 304. Simple cancellation and revocation of authorization.

Sec. 305. Price increases and material changes.

Sec. 306. Trials, promotions, and conversion.

Sec. 307. Refunds and post-cancellation charges.

Sec. 308. Failure to use; dormancy; pause rights.

Sec. 309. Death, incapacity, military orders, disasters, and hardship.

Sec. 310. Data, content, and purchased-property access after cancellation.

Sec. 311. Duties of billing intermediaries and platforms.

Sec. 312. Records and burden of proof.

Sec. 313. Relationship to other law.

TITLE IV - DIGITAL GOODS, SOFTWARE, ACCOUNTS, AND DIGITAL PROPERTY

Sec. 401. Scope; Protected Digital Property Interest.

Sec. 402. Durable Access, Entitlement Records, And Authentication.

Sec. 403. Account Property Vault.

Sec. 404. Account Restriction, Suspension, And Termination Procedures.

Sec. 405. Separation Of Conduct Sanctions From Property Confiscation.

Sec. 406. Removal Claims, Upstream Rights, And Platform Guaranties.

Sec. 407. Protected Digital Baseline; Updates And Compatibility.

Sec. 408. Live-Service, Shared-World, And Community-Hosted Products.

Sec. 409. Preservation Of Personal Digital Property.

Sec. 410. Safety, Security, Privacy, Fraud, And Legal-Compliance Measures.

Sec. 411. Prohibited Digital-Property Practices.

Sec. 412. Allocation, Records, And Relation To Other Titles.

TITLE V - CONTINUED USE AFTER COMPANY FAILURE AND END OF SERVICE

Sec. 501. Continuity Duty And Covered Seller-Controlled Dependencies.

Sec. 502. Continuity Escrow, Testing, And Financial Assurance.

Sec. 503. End-Of-Service Triggers And Notice.

Sec. 504. Continuity Ladder And Owner Remedies.

Sec. 505. Company Failure, Abandonment, And Emergency Stewardship.

Sec. 506. End-Of-Life Unlocking And Release.

Sec. 507. Live-Service Wind-Down And Community Hosting.

Sec. 508. Successors, Asset Transfers, And Upstream Licensing.

Sec. 509. Bankruptcy And Statutory Trust Rules.

Sec. 510. Confidentiality, Cybersecurity, And Responsible Release.

Sec. 511. Legacy Systems And Transition.

Sec. 512. Limits And Enforcement.

TITLE VI - PURCHASED HARDWARE CAPABILITIES, LOCAL CONTROL, SOFTWARE CHOICE, ADVERTISING, ARTIFICIAL DEGRADATION, AND DURABILITY

Sec. 601. Ownership Of Purchased Hardware Capabilities.

Sec. 602. Local Control And Offline Operation Of Connected Products.

Sec. 603. Advertising And Commercial Messages In Purchased Products.

Sec. 604. Objective Durability And Minimum Support Periods.

Sec. 605. Security, Functional, And Compatibility Support.

Sec. 606. Remote Actions, Change Logs, And Owner Control.

Sec. 607. Software Version Choice, Deferral, Reinstallation, And Rollback.

Sec. 608. Artificial Degradation And Planned Obsolescence.

Sec. 609. Measurable Safety, Cybersecurity, Privacy, And Legal Exceptions.

Sec. 610. Durability Disclosures, Testing, And Records.

Sec. 611. Remedies And Construction.

TITLE VII - REPAIR, THIRD-PARTY CONSUMABLES, PARTS PAIRING, WARRANTIES, AND SECTOR SAFETY

Sec. 701. Right To Diagnose, Maintain, Repair, And Modify.

Sec. 702. Parts, Tools, Documentation, Diagnostics, And Software.

Sec. 703. Serialization, Parts Pairing, Activation, And Warnings.

Sec. 704. Third-Party, Refilled, Remanufactured, And Recycled Consumables.

Sec. 705. Warranty Protection And Magnuson-Moss Amendment.

Sec. 706. Sector Safety; No Categorical Loophole.

Sec. 707. Cybersecurity, Privacy, And Repair Data.

Sec. 708. Independent Provider Duties And Nondiscrimination.

Sec. 709. Intellectual Property, Environment, And Competition.

Sec. 710. Records, Burdens, And Remedies.

Sec. 711. Patent Exhaustion, Permissible Repair, And Reconstruction.

TITLE VIII - TRANSFER, RESALE, LENDING, INHERITANCE, EXPORT, INTEROPERABILITY, AND CONFORMING DIGITAL-LAW AMENDMENTS

Sec. 801. Right To Transfer, Resell, Give, And Lend.

Sec. 802. Verified Digital Transfer And Temporary Lending.

Sec. 803. Inheritance, Fiduciaries, And Legacy Access.

Sec. 804. Export Of Personal Digital Property And Account Value.

Sec. 805. Interoperability And Protection Against Ecosystem Lock-In.

Sec. 806. Privacy, Security, And Transfer Records.

Sec. 807. Amendment To Section 109 Of Title 17.

Sec. 808. Amendment To Section 117 Of Title 17.

Sec. 809. Permanent Amendment To Section 1201 Of Title 17.

Sec. 810. Amendment To Section 301 Of Title 17.

Sec. 811. Narrow Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Safe Harbor.

Sec. 812. Construction, Implementation, And Enforcement.

TITLE IX - OWNERSHIP-DIRECTED FINANCING, REPOSSESSION, AND BANKRUPTCY SECURITY

Sec. 901. Definitions.

Sec. 902. Ownership-Directed Transactions Treated As Credit Sales.

Sec. 903. Shopping-Stage And Contract Disclosures.

Sec. 904. Price, Equity, Early Purchase, Cure, And Reinstatement.

Sec. 905. Remote Disabling And Location Tracking.

Sec. 906. Uniform Minimum Repossession Protections.

Sec. 907. Warranties, Title, And Satisfaction.

Sec. 908. Bankruptcy Ownership Floor.

Sec. 909. Rulemaking; Model Forms; Databases.

Sec. 910. Enforcement; Relation To Other Law.

TITLE X - SECURE HOME, LAND, AND COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP

Sec. 1001. Definitions And Scope.

Sec. 1002. Contracts For Deed Are Mortgages In Substance.

Sec. 1003. Manufactured-Home Community Purchase Opportunity.

Sec. 1004. Heirs Property And Family Title Security.

Sec. 1005. Fair Tax-Foreclosure Process And Surplus.

Sec. 1006. Valuation Integrity And Reconsideration.

Sec. 1007. Foreclosure Authority, Documentation, And Loss Mitigation.

Sec. 1008. Ownership Opportunity Fund.

Sec. 1009. Coordination With The 21St Century Road To Housing Act.

Sec. 1010. Enforcement And State-Law Savings.

TITLE XI - PROPERTY SEIZURE, FORFEITURE, AND PUBLIC-CONFISCATION REFORM

Sec. 1101. Conviction Required For Federal Forfeiture.

Sec. 1102. Warrant, Receipt, And Prompt Retention Hearing.

Sec. 1103. Government Burdens; Innocent Owners; Counsel.

Sec. 1104. Statutory Proportionality And Essential Property.

Sec. 1105. Federal Adoption And Equitable-Sharing Anti-Evasion.

Sec. 1106. Revenue Neutrality; Victims First.

Sec. 1107. Care, Return, Repair, Interest, And Loss Of Use.

Sec. 1108. Waivers, Settlements, Transparency, And Audit.

Sec. 1109. Amendment To Cafra; Construction.

TITLE XII - PAID STORED VALUE, PLATFORM CREDITS, VIRTUAL UNITS, AND CUSTODIAL DIGITAL PROPERTY

Sec. 1201. Definitions And Regulatory Boundaries.

Sec. 1202. Purchased Value Does Not Expire Or Erode.

Sec. 1203. Redemption, Refunds, And Transfer.

Sec. 1204. Customer Ownership, Segregation, And Use Of Custodial Property.

Sec. 1205. Insolvency And Successor Obligations.

Sec. 1206. Account Termination And Conduct Separation.

Sec. 1207. Disclosures, Records, And Audits.

Sec. 1208. Unclaimed Property, Tax, Gaming, And Intellectual-Property Savings.

Sec. 1209. Rulemaking, Enforcement, And State Law.

TITLE XIII - OWNERSHIP-PRESERVING PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND PUBLIC ACCESS

Sec. 1301. Federal Ownership-First Procurement Policy.

Sec. 1302. Required Contract Clauses.

Sec. 1303. Federal Data And Digital Property Exit Rights.

Sec. 1304. Libraries, Archives, Schools, And Cultural Memory.

Sec. 1305. Federally Funded And Federally Assisted Products.

Sec. 1306. Federal Device Reuse And Donation.

Sec. 1307. Procurement Transparency And Accountability.

TITLE XIV - ENFORCEMENT, REMEDIES, AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE

Sec. 1401. Unlawful Acts.

Sec. 1402. Federal Public Enforcement.

Sec. 1403. State, Territorial, And Tribal Public Enforcement.

Sec. 1404. Private Right Of Action.

Sec. 1405. Civil Penalties And Restitution.

Sec. 1406. Responsibility Among Multiple Actors.

Sec. 1407. Notice, Cure, And Emergency Relief.

Sec. 1408. Limitations, Accrual, And Preservation.

Sec. 1409. Arbitration, Forum, And Collective Rights.

Sec. 1410. Whistleblower And Anti-Retaliation Protections.

Sec. 1411. Consumer Defenses And Burdens.

Sec. 1412. Enforcement Transparency And Complaint Data.

Sec. 1413. No Self-Funding Incentive.

Sec. 1414. Criminal Offenses For Destruction And Fraud.

Sec. 1415. Foreign Sellers, Importers, And Service Of Process.

TITLE XV - ADMINISTRATION, STANDARDS, AND OWNERSHIP INFRASTRUCTURE

Sec. 1501. Definitions And Lead Agency.

Sec. 1502. Office Of Ownership And Durability.

Sec. 1503. Interagency Ownership Council.

Sec. 1504. Rulemaking Standards And Limits.

Sec. 1505. Temporary Safety And Cybersecurity Orders.

Sec. 1506. Ownership Research, Testing, And Metrics.

Sec. 1507. Ownership Infrastructure Grants.

Sec. 1508. Authorization Of Appropriations.

Sec. 1509. Oversight, Audit, And Program Integrity.

Sec. 1510. International And Interstate Coordination.

TITLE XVI - TRANSITION, CONFORMING RULES, AND EFFECTIVE DATES

Sec. 1601. Application To Existing And Future Transactions.

Sec. 1602. General Effective Dates.

Sec. 1603. Legacy Continuity Registration.

Sec. 1604. Model Compliance And Limited Safe Harbors.

Sec. 1605. Effect On Other Federal Law.

Sec. 1606. No Implied Governmental Or Corporate Property Right.

Sec. 1607. Severability.

Sec. 1608. Inflation And Threshold Adjustments.

Sec. 1609. Deadline Enforcement And Failure To Issue Rules.

Sec. 1610. Periodic Review; No Sunset.

SEC. 101. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:

The practical ability to acquire, possess, use, maintain, repair, improve, transfer, give, lend, and devise lawful property is a foundation of individual autonomy, family security, civic equality, entrepreneurship, and democratic self-government.

Ownership is hollow when a commercial actor may, after receiving the agreed price, remotely disable a product, erase a purchased digital good, withdraw an advertised capability, impose a new recurring payment, prevent ordinary repair, or make continued use depend on an account or server the actor may terminate at will.

Modern commerce increasingly substitutes revocable access for durable possession while using the familiar language, visual design, and pricing of a sale. A reasonable purchaser who selects a button marked “buy,” “purchase,” “own,” or an equivalent ordinarily understands that the acquired benefit will not disappear because a seller changes strategy, loses an upstream license, discontinues a server, or fails as a business.

Fine-print descriptions of a transaction as a “license” or “service” frequently are non-negotiable, unread until after payment, or inconsistent with prominent sales representations. Transaction labels that do not reflect economic substance impair price comparison and competition.

Subscriptions can expand access and reduce up-front cost when chosen knowingly. They become coercive when enrollment is obscured, cancellation is more difficult than enrollment, a free trial converts without meaningful notice, a price or product changes without renewed consent, or a previously purchased function is moved behind a recurring paywall.

The loss of authentication servers, cloud services, application stores, digital-rights-management infrastructure, or manufacturer accounts can disable tangible products that remain physically sound and digital goods for which the consumer paid in full.

Continued dependence on a seller after a sale can expose households to privacy invasions, cybersecurity risk, forced advertising, discriminatory exclusion, and loss of access after an unrelated allegation of misconduct.

A sanction for conduct on a communications, gaming, financial, or marketplace service should be proportionate to that conduct and should not ordinarily confiscate unrelated lawfully purchased property, stored value, creative work, records, or personal data.

Restrictions on diagnostics, tools, replacement parts, software, passwords, parts pairing, and third-party consumables increase cost, reduce the supply of independent repair, burden rural and low-income communities, generate avoidable waste, and may shorten product life without a demonstrated safety or security benefit.

Product serial numbers and cryptographic authentication can serve legitimate safety, provenance, theft-prevention, and cybersecurity purposes. The same technologies can be used to reject lawful parts, suppress repair, or force replacement. Law should distinguish the function from the restraint.

Owners of connected products should be able to operate core functions locally, export their data and creative work in usable formats, and choose interoperable services when doing so does not materially endanger another person or a protected network.

Security updates are essential, but an update should not secretly reduce performance, remove an advertised feature, introduce advertising, disable a compatible consumable, or prevent rollback without a narrowly tailored and disclosed justification.

Useful-life and software-support periods are often undisclosed. Objective minimum support, parts-availability, and end-of-life duties allow purchasers to compare total cost and encourage durable design.

Rent-to-own, lease-to-own, contract-for-deed, and similar transactions may function as high-cost credit while denying purchasers the disclosures, accumulated equity, cure rights, and foreclosure or repossession safeguards associated with ownership financing.

Losing a sole vehicle, mobility device, work tool, household appliance, family home, or personal data without adequate notice and opportunity to cure can destabilize employment, health, and family life. Enforcement of a security interest should preserve proportionality, equity, and access to personal effects.

Heirs-property title defects, predatory partition sales, discriminatory or inaccurate valuation, manufactured-home land insecurity, and tax-foreclosure procedures can strip families and communities of accumulated equity, with disproportionate effects on Black, Latino, Indigenous, rural, and low-income owners.

When government retains value beyond a lawful debt, or a law-enforcement agency’s budget benefits from property it seizes, due process and public confidence are threatened.

Digital and connected-product markets are national and international. Their contracts, payments, servers, software updates, component supply chains, and communications routinely cross State and national boundaries.

Divergent minimum rules for transaction labeling, continuity, cancellation, repair information, and digital transfer impose avoidable burdens on interstate commerce, while stronger State and Tribal protections can serve as laboratories and should be preserved.

Congress has authority to secure these protections under its powers to regulate interstate and foreign commerce; establish uniform bankruptcy laws; promote the progress of science and useful arts; govern patents and copyrights; establish post offices and regulate interstate communications; tax and spend for the general welfare; regulate Federal property and procurement; enforce the Reconstruction Amendments; and enact laws necessary and proper to carry those powers into execution.

Detailed statutory standards, judicial enforcement, multiple public enforcers, and a private right of action are necessary to make ownership protections durable notwithstanding changes in agency policy.

SEC. 102. PURPOSES.

The purposes of this Act are -

to ensure that a transaction represented and reasonably understood as a sale provides durable and practical ownership;

to require clear separation among sales, subscriptions, rentals, and time-limited licenses;

to prohibit retroactive feature removal, forced conversion of purchased capabilities to subscriptions, artificial degradation, and undisclosed post-purchase advertising;

to secure continued use after end of service, license failure, acquisition, insolvency, or dissolution through local operation, unlocking, interoperability, escrow, migration, replacement, or refund;

to preserve access to purchased property and personal digital property when an account is suspended or terminated;

to secure the rights to repair, use compatible third-party parts and consumables, and avoid unjustified parts pairing or ecosystem lock-in;

to establish minimum durability, support, parts-availability, and ownership-disclosure standards;

to protect equity and due process in ownership-directed financing, repossession, foreclosure, tax collection, and forfeiture;

to expand pathways to secure home, land, and community ownership, particularly for first-generation, low-wealth, rural, Tribal, and historically excluded households;

to create a Federal floor while preserving stronger State, local, and Tribal protections; and

to provide effective judicial, public, and private remedies that cannot be nullified by non-negotiated waiver or forced arbitration.

SEC. 103. CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY AND JURISDICTIONAL NEXUS.

(a) EXERCISE OF ENUMERATED POWERS.

This Act is enacted under each source of constitutional authority identified in section 101(20), independently and in combination.

(b) TRANSACTIONS IN OR AFFECTING COMMERCE.

Except where a provision expressly applies on another jurisdictional basis, this Act applies only to conduct involving -

a good, service, digital good, component, payment, communication, account, software update, or contractual performance that has traveled in or uses a channel or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce;

a person engaged in a business or commercial activity in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce;

a transaction processed, advertised, authenticated, delivered, financed, or supported through interstate mail, telecommunications, the internet, an interstate payment network, or a multistate platform;

property purchased, insured, guaranteed, subsidized, licensed, or procured by the Federal Government, or with Federal financial assistance; or

an activity that, in the aggregate with substantially similar activities, has a substantial effect on interstate or foreign commerce.

(c) EXPRESS JURISDICTIONAL ELEMENT.

In a civil action, the jurisdictional nexus is satisfied by a preponderance of the evidence. No plaintiff is required to prove that an individual transaction, considered alone, substantially affected interstate commerce if paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (4) of subsection (b) is satisfied.

(d) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND BANKRUPTCY.

Titles concerning copyright, patent exhaustion, digital transfer, technological protection measures, executory licenses, consumer claims in bankruptcy, or continuity escrow are additionally enacted under article I, section 8, clauses 4 and 8 of the Constitution.

(e) FEDERAL FUNDS AND PROPERTY.

Conditions on Federal grants, insurance, guarantees, procurement, and disposition of Federal property shall apply only after clear notice and shall be reasonably related to the Federal program and the purposes of this Act.

SEC. 104. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) ACCOUNT.

The term “account” means any credentialed relationship through which a person accesses, authenticates, stores, manages, uses, repairs, transfers, or receives support for a good, digital good, service, entitlement, or item of personal digital property.

(2) ADVERTISEMENT.

The term “advertisement” means a commercial message promoting a person, product, transaction, or paid placement, including a message inserted into the interface, notifications, search results, settings, lock screen, operating system, or core function of a product. The term does not include a safety recall, security alert, transaction receipt, legally required notice, or noncommercial communication requested by the owner.

(3) AFFIRMATIVE EXPRESS CONSENT.

The term “affirmative express consent” means a freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous, and revocable act that -

is obtained after all material terms are presented clearly and conspicuously;

is not inferred from silence, inactivity, use of an unrelated feature, closure of a notice, or consent to another transaction;

is not obtained through a preselected control, misleading interface, obstruction, or unequal choice architecture;

identifies the price, frequency, duration, cancellation method, and material effect; and

is evidenced by a record the person may retain.

(4) ARTIFICIAL DEGRADATION.

The term “artificial degradation” means a remote action, update, design practice, or commercial restriction that materially reduces performance, capacity, interoperability, battery life, repairability, compatibility, availability of a core function, or remaining useful life without being reasonably necessary and narrowly tailored to address a documented safety, cybersecurity, privacy, legal-compliance, or resource-integrity risk.

(5) BILLING INTERMEDIARY.

The term “billing intermediary” means a payment network, application store, marketplace, telecommunications carrier, financial institution, or other person that knowingly initiates, processes, presents, or controls a recurring charge on behalf of a seller. The term does not include a person whose only role is the automated transmission of funds and who lacks reasonable means to identify the payee and recurring character of the charge.

(6) CLEAR AND CONSPICUOUS.

The term “clear and conspicuous” means unavoidable, readily understandable, and presented in the same language and medium as the principal representation, with visual, auditory, temporal, spatial, and technical prominence reasonably calculated to be noticed and understood by the intended audience, including persons with disabilities. A hyperlink, hover text, terms-of-service reference, or disclosure delivered after payment is not clear and conspicuous as to a material pre-transaction term unless expressly authorized by this Act.

(6A) COMMISSION.

The term “Commission” has the meaning given in section 1501.

(6B) CONNECTED PRODUCT.

The term “connected product” means a tangible product or component that communicates through the internet, a telecommunications network, a local wired or wireless network, near-field communication, satellite, a seller-controlled application, or another digital interface, or whose core function materially depends on remote software, authentication, data, or processing.

(7) CONSUMER.

The term “consumer” means a natural person who seeks or acquires property or services primarily for personal, family, household, educational, creative, agricultural, or home-based-business purposes, and includes an authorized fiduciary, heir, estate, household member, or representative acting for that person.

(8) CORE FUNCTION.

The term “core function” means a capability -

identified on packaging, a product page, point-of-sale display, demonstration, specification, or advertisement as a reason to acquire a product;

enabled and ordinarily usable at the time of sale;

necessary for the product’s customary principal use; or

reasonably expected from the product category,

but does not include a new capability developed and offered for the first time after sale unless the new capability becomes necessary to continue a function described in subparagraphs (A) through (D).

(9) COVERED PRODUCT.

The term “covered product” means tangible personal property, software, a digital good, a connected product, a component, a replacement part, or a bundle of such items acquired in a covered transaction. The term does not include real property except as expressly provided in Titles IX, X, or XI.

(10) COVERED TRANSACTION.

The term “covered transaction” means an offer, advertisement, sale, lease, rental, license, subscription, financing, warranty, service plan, exchange, gift-card or stored-value issuance, or other commercial disposition to a consumer or qualifying small entity that satisfies section 103.

(11) DIGITAL GOOD.

The term “digital good” means a lawfully acquired work, copy, phonorecord, computer program, game, audiovisual work, book, publication, ticketed recording, downloadable content, virtual item, dataset, model file, design file, or other content represented in digital form, whether delivered by download, streaming, remote access, account entitlement, token, or other means. The term does not include a live professional service, a communication service, or metered computing capacity except to the extent such service includes a separately sold digital good.

(12) DIGITAL PROPERTY.

The term “digital property” means a digital good, personal digital property, stored value, or transferable entitlement in which a person has a lawful possessory, contractual, beneficial, or ownership interest. The term does not itself determine whether a security, commodity, deposit, or intellectual-property right exists under another law.

(13) DURABLE ACCESS.

The term “durable access” means the practical ability, during the applicable ownership or support period, to locate, authenticate, retrieve, render, use, and make a lawful backup of property without the seller’s unilateral discretion to revoke that ability. Durable access may be provided through a reasonably secure offline credential, locally stored copy, successor service, interoperable format, or other method that remains effective during an account or network outage.

(14) DURABLE RECEIPT.

The term “durable receipt” means a human-readable and machine-readable record that a purchaser may download, print, store independently, and later use to establish the transaction, entitlement, seller, date, price, promised duration, disclosed dependencies, and applicable remedy.

(15) END-OF-SERVICE EVENT.

The term “end-of-service event” means cessation or material impairment of authentication, hosting, updates, support, cloud processing, marketplace access, account infrastructure, or another seller-controlled dependency necessary for a core function or durable access, whether caused by business decision, rights expiration, insolvency, acquisition, technical migration, abandonment, or operation of law.

(16) FAIR AND REASONABLE TERMS.

The term “fair and reasonable terms” means terms that are objectively justified, non-discriminatory among similarly situated persons, not designed to deter lawful use, and priced no higher than the lower of -

the seller’s offered retail price for the same item or access; or

the seller’s reasonable incremental cost plus a commercially reasonable margin,

taking account of volume, actual intellectual-property value, and documented safety or security cost, but not lost revenue from foreclosed repair, consumable, subscription, or replacement sales.

(17) MATERIAL ADVERSE CHANGE.

The term “material adverse change” means a change reasonably likely to affect a person’s decision to acquire or continue using property or a service, including a price increase; new recurring charge; shortened duration; reduced functionality, quality, privacy, security, portability, compatibility, or support; introduction or material increase of advertising; new data use; elimination of a plan; or new restriction on cancellation, repair, transfer, or local control.

(18) OWNER.

The term “owner” means a consumer or qualifying small entity that acquires a covered product in a transaction classified as a sale under this Act, without regard to a contrary non-negotiated label. Ownership of a particular copy, device, or entitlement does not transfer copyright, patent, trademark, another person’s personal data, or a trade secret except as expressly provided by law.

(19) PERSONAL DIGITAL PROPERTY.

The term “personal digital property” means data or content created by, supplied by, purchased for, or uniquely associated with a person, including photographs, video, audio, manuscripts, designs, save files, annotations, messages to the extent lawfully accessible, contact lists, calendars, health and fitness records, device histories, transaction records, account inventories, configuration files, and exported social content. The term excludes another person’s private communication where disclosure is prohibited by law and excludes a seller’s trade secrets except to the minimum extent necessary to render the person’s own property usable.

(19A) PERSON.

The term “person” means an individual, corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint-stock company, trust, estate, cooperative, nonprofit organization, governmental commercial instrumentality, or other legal entity. The term includes a Federal, State, local, territorial, or Tribal governmental entity only where this Act expressly so provides and subject to applicable sovereign immunity.

(20) PLATFORM.

The term “platform” means a person that controls a marketplace, application store, account system, rights-management system, operating environment, payment channel, or other infrastructure through which a material number of third parties offer, deliver, authenticate, update, or disable covered products.

(21) QUALIFYING SMALL ENTITY.

The term “qualifying small entity” means a business, nonprofit organization, farm, cooperative, or independent creator that -

together with affiliates, employs not more than 100 employees and has annual gross receipts not exceeding $15,000,000, adjusted under section 1608;

acquires the covered product as an end user and not principally for resale; and

is not controlled by the seller or an affiliate of the seller.

(22) REASONABLE USEFUL LIFE.

The term “reasonable useful life” means the longer of -

the period expressly represented by the seller;

the applicable minimum support period under section 604;

the period during which a reasonable purchaser would expect the category of product, with ordinary maintenance and repair, to retain its core functions; or

for a specific unit, the period during which the unit remains technically capable of safe performance of a core function.

(23) RECURRING CHARGE.

The term “recurring charge” means a charge or series of charges initiated under an arrangement in which silence, failure to cancel, or continued possession is treated as authorization for another payment or extension.

(24) REMOTE ACTION.

The term “remote action” means a command, configuration, update, credential change, server response, account action, cryptographic act, or omission by a person other than the owner that changes the practical operation, availability, performance, or compatibility of a product after delivery.

(25) REPAIR.

The term “repair” means diagnosis, maintenance, restoration, calibration, refurbishment, modification, replacement of a part, installation or removal of software, data recovery, security research, or other activity intended to return property to a condition or configuration chosen by its lawful owner.

(26) SALE.

The term “sale” means a transaction that transfers for value possession, title, an indefinite personal-use entitlement, or the practical incidents of ownership in a product, as determined under sections 201 and 202. A sale of a copy does not transfer the copyright in the work embodied in that copy.

(27) SELLER.

The term “seller” means a manufacturer, developer, publisher, distributor, retailer, lessor, licensor, subscription provider, platform, marketplace, dealer, creditor, assignee, servicer, or other person that makes or materially controls a covered representation, receives material consideration, supplies a necessary entitlement, or has practical power to satisfy a duty imposed by this Act. Liability shall be allocated under section 1406 according to knowledge, control, benefit, and contribution.

(28) STORED VALUE.

The term “stored value” means money, credit, points purchased with money, gift-card value, platform wallet value, refundable deposit, or virtual currency that is represented as exchangeable for goods, services, or money. The term does not include points awarded without consideration under a clearly disclosed loyalty program, except to the extent State law provides otherwise.

(29) SUBSCRIPTION.

The term “subscription” means an arrangement requiring recurring consideration to retain access to property, content, a capability, or a service, and includes a negative-option, automatic-renewal, continuity, or free-to-pay conversion arrangement.

(30) THIRD-PARTY CONSUMABLE.

The term “third-party consumable” means ink, toner, a cartridge, filter, battery, charger, cable, coffee pod, cleaning material, blade, attachment, media, fluid, reagent, or other replaceable input made or supplied by a person other than the original seller and reasonably intended for use with a product.

(31) TRANSFER.

The term “transfer” means a sale, gift, loan, devise, assignment, or other lawful disposition of possession or a personal-use entitlement. For a digital good, the term includes an authorized process that does not knowingly cause the transferor and transferee to retain simultaneously usable copies beyond any temporary technical reproduction reasonably necessary to complete the transfer.

SEC. 105. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP BILL OF RIGHTS.

(a) RIGHTS SECURED.

Subject to the tailored exceptions and procedures in this Act, every owner has the right -

to know before payment whether a transaction is a sale, subscription, rental, or time-limited license;

to receive the practical benefit of a sale and a durable receipt proving it;

to possess and continue using a purchased product without a new charge or avoidable seller-controlled dependency;

to retain every core function and material capability represented or enabled at sale;

to be free from artificial degradation, remote bricking, and undisclosed post-purchase advertising;

to receive necessary security fixes and to choose, defer, reinstall, or roll back nonessential software changes consistent with section 607;

to local control of a connected product’s core functions;

to reasonable support, replacement parts, and continuity during the product’s reasonable useful life;

to diagnose, maintain, repair, refurbish, improve, and modify lawful property;

to use safe, compatible third-party parts, services, software, and consumables;

to be free from unjustified serialization, parts pairing, and ecosystem lock-in;

to durable access, lawful backup, and continued use of a purchased digital good;

to export personal digital property and account records in a usable, interoperable format;

to have purchased property, stored value, and export rights preserved when an account is restricted or terminated;

to have a conduct sanction separated from confiscation of unrelated property;

to continuity, unlocking, migration, replacement, or refund after an end-of-service event or company failure;

to sell, give, lend, transfer, and devise property, subject to the rights of others and lawfully perfected security interests;

to transparent ownership-directed financing, accumulated ownership credit, early payoff, cure, and fair disposition of collateral;

to notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before essential or high-equity property is seized, disabled, repossessed, or forfeited;

to recovery of surplus value and protection against self-funded confiscation;

to remedies adequate to restore access, value, data, time, and consequential loss;

to organize and act collectively with similarly situated owners;

to protection from retaliation for exercising, assisting, or reporting a right under this Act; and

to the benefit of any stronger protection supplied by State, local, Tribal, or other Federal law.

(b) DIRECT EFFECT.

Each right in subsection (a) is independently enforceable to the extent implemented by an operative provision of this Act. The absence of a regulation does not delay or defeat a statutory duty for which the text supplies an objectively administrable standard.

(c) NO ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO ENDANGER OTHERS.

Nothing in this section authorizes infringement of another person’s intellectual property, invasion of privacy, unlawful discrimination, unsafe operation on a public network or roadway, evasion of emissions controls, defeat of accessibility protections, fraud, theft, or material harm to another person. A restriction asserted on such a ground remains subject to the necessity, tailoring, evidence, and less-restrictive-alternative requirements of this Act.

SEC. 106. ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE; ANTI-EVASION.

(a) SUBSTANCE CONTROLS.

The rights and duties under this Act turn on the economic substance, technical reality, prominent representations, and reasonable understanding of the transaction, not on a drafting label, delivery mechanism, accounting treatment, or unilateral reservation of rights.

(b) NONEXCLUSIVE FACTORS.

In determining economic substance, a court or agency shall consider -

whether consideration is paid once or on a fixed installment schedule;

whether the transaction is promoted using language or imagery associated with ownership;

whether possession or access is promised for an indefinite period;

whether the purchaser bears risk of loss, maintenance, taxes, or obsolescence;

whether the seller retains a meaningful reversionary interest rather than a technical power to revoke;

whether ordinary purchasers reasonably expect the item to remain usable without continuing payment;

whether the seller can remotely terminate access or remove functions;

whether restrictions principally protect copyright or instead recreate commercial control after sale; and

the totality of the circumstances.

(c) EVASION.

It is unlawful to structure, divide, route, relabel, bundle, assign, or technically implement a transaction with the purpose or substantial effect of evading this Act. Related persons and nominally separate contracts shall be considered together.

(d) CONTRACTUAL CHOICE OF LAW.

A choice-of-law, forum, or corporate-organization device may not avoid application of this Act to a person or transaction otherwise within section 103.

(e) BURDEN.

Once a purchaser shows that a transaction was represented as a sale or satisfies three factors in subsection (b), the person asserting a lesser classification bears the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that the purchaser knowingly selected a materially different transaction after the disclosures required by this Act.

SEC. 107. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.

(a) OWNERSHIP-PRESERVING CONSTRUCTION.

Ambiguity in a mass-market agreement shall be resolved in favor of durable ownership, interoperability, repair, transferability, and preservation of paid value.

(b) CUMULATIVE RIGHTS.

Rights and remedies under this Act are cumulative. Election of repair, replacement, access restoration, cancellation, refund, damages, or another remedy does not waive an additional remedy needed to make the person whole, but duplicate recovery for the same loss is prohibited.

(c) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.

Ownership of a copy or product does not convey an underlying intellectual-property right. Intellectual-property law shall not be construed to create post-sale control beyond rights expressly granted by Congress, and the specific amendments in this Act control over an inconsistent general rule.

(d) SAFETY AND SECURITY CLAIMS.

Unless this Act provides a different standard, a person relying on safety, cybersecurity, privacy, emissions, or legal compliance to restrict an ownership right bears the burden of showing, by a preponderance of specific evidence, that the restriction -

addresses a material and reasonably foreseeable risk;

is reasonably effective;

is no broader or longer than necessary;

does not serve primarily to suppress competition or extract payment; and

is accompanied, where feasible, by a safe and reasonably accessible alternative.

(e) ACCESSIBILITY.

All notices, interfaces, export tools, and procedures required by this Act shall conform to applicable Federal accessibility law and shall be usable without requiring a smartphone, biometric identifier, or broadband connection unless the product cannot reasonably operate without that technology.

SEC. 108. NONWAIVER; INVALID TERMS.

(a) NONWAIVER.

Except for a settlement knowingly entered after a dispute has arisen and with opportunity to consult counsel, a right or remedy under this Act may not be waived, disclaimed, shortened, or varied to the detriment of a consumer or qualifying small entity.

(b) INVALID TERMS.

A term is void and unenforceable to the extent it -

permits unilateral revocation of purchased property or a core function;

converts a sale to a subscription or permits an undisclosed recurring charge;

disclaims a duty expressly imposed by this Act;

deems silence, use, update installation, or continued possession consent to a material adverse change;

prohibits truthful reviews, repair, security research, data export, collective action, or communication with a public enforcer;

requires forfeiture of unrelated property as a consequence of account conduct;

selects a law or forum principally to evade this Act; or

restricts access to a court contrary to section 1409.

(c) BLUE PENCILING PROHIBITED FOR DELIBERATE EVASION.

If a seller knowingly uses a prohibited term after the applicable effective date, a court shall not rewrite that term to provide the maximum restraint that might have been lawful. The term shall be unenforceable in full, without invalidating a separable provision favorable to the purchaser.

SEC. 109. RELATION TO STATE, LOCAL, AND TRIBAL LAW.

(a) FEDERAL FLOOR.

This Act establishes minimum protection and does not preempt a State, local, or Tribal law that affords equal or greater protection, a broader remedy, a longer period, or a more protective rule of contract or property.

(b) LIMITED CONFLICT PREEMPTION.

A State or local requirement is preempted only to the extent simultaneous compliance with that requirement and a specific requirement of this Act is physically impossible. Additional cost, operational variation, or a more protective standard does not constitute impossibility.

(c) UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE AND COMMON LAW.

Except as expressly amended, this Act does not displace State law concerning title, secured transactions, trusts, estates, bailment, conversion, trespass to chattels, warranty, unconscionability, fraud, or remedies.

(d) TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY.

Nothing in this Act waives Tribal sovereign immunity or diminishes treaty rights, jurisdiction, or authority. The Commission shall consult with Tribal governments and may enter enforcement and technical-assistance agreements consistent with Tribal law.

(e) STATE AND TRIBAL ENFORCEMENT.

State and Tribal public enforcers may enforce this Act as provided in section 1403 without surrendering independent authority.

SEC. 110. SEVERABILITY OF PROTECTED INTERESTS.

If a provision, application, remedy, enforcement mechanism, or funding condition of this Act is held invalid, the remainder and every other application shall not be affected. If a court holds that a particular remedy is unavailable to a particular plaintiff or against a particular defendant, the underlying duty and every other lawful remedy remain in force.

SEC. 201. CLASSIFICATION BY SUBSTANCE.

(a) REQUIRED CLASSIFICATION.

Before accepting consideration, a seller shall classify each covered transaction as one or more of the following, separately for each material component:

Sale - ownership or an indefinite personal-use entitlement for a fixed price.

Subscription - access or service dependent on recurring consideration.

Rental - temporary possession for a disclosed term with a genuine obligation to return the item.

Time-limited license - a disclosed personal-use entitlement ending on a date certain without automatic renewal.

Metered service - a disclosed charge based on actual units consumed.

(b) MIXED TRANSACTIONS.

A seller may offer a mixed transaction only if the sale and nonsale components, prices, dependencies, and consequences of cancellation are separately and prominently identified. A service component may not be used to defeat ownership of a severable product or core function.

(c) REQUIRED SUBSTANCE.

A transaction classified as a sale shall comply with every applicable ownership duty in this Act. A seller may instead offer an honest subscription, rental, or time-limited license that satisfies this title and Title III.

(d) NO IMPLIED RENTAL.

The absence of physical delivery, the use of remote storage, or the existence of copyright does not alone make a transaction a rental, service, or time-limited license.

SEC. 202. PRESUMPTION OF SALE.

(a) PRESUMPTION.

A covered transaction is presumed to be a sale if -

the seller uses “buy,” “purchase,” “own,” “keep,” “yours,” “permanent,” or a substantially similar representation;

the purchaser pays a one-time price or a fixed sum in installments not conditioned on continued access;

no return date or definite access-ending date is disclosed before payment; or

the transaction is ordinarily treated as a sale for a materially identical tangible product.

(b) REBUTTAL.

The presumption may be rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence that, before payment, the purchaser -

was shown the alternative classification with equal or greater prominence than any ownership language;

received the end date, recurring price, material dependencies, and cancellation or return duties;

separately selected that alternative through affirmative express consent; and

was not charged or presented a price reasonably calculated to mimic a permanent sale without disclosing the limitation.

(c) TECHNICAL RESERVATIONS INSUFFICIENT.

A statement that “content is licensed, not sold,” that “terms may change,” or that access is “subject to availability” does not rebut the presumption unless the entire transaction is honestly presented as a nonsale and satisfies subsection (b).

SEC. 203. HONEST TRANSACTION LABELS.

(a) PROHIBITED REPRESENTATIONS.

It is unlawful to use a word, button, icon, category, comparison, or checkout design that conveys ownership for a transaction that does not provide ownership under this Act.

(b) REQUIRED PROXIMITY.

The classification and total price shall appear immediately adjacent to the principal transaction control and on every order-confirmation screen. A seller may not require opening a link or scrolling past the control to learn the classification.

(c) PHYSICAL RETAIL.

For packaging, shelf displays, and point-of-sale transactions, the classification and material dependency shall appear on the principal display panel and receipt in a size and contrast reasonably comparable to the price.

(d) ORAL SALES.

In a telephone or in-person oral sale, the seller shall state the classification and material terms before requesting assent and shall promptly deliver a durable receipt.

(e) COMPARISON PRICING.

A seller comparing a subscription or rental price with a sale price shall disclose the comparison period, total payments over that period, and whether the purchaser acquires equity or ownership.

SEC. 204. OWNERSHIP DISCLOSURE AND DURABLE RECEIPT.

(a) PRE-TRANSACTION DISCLOSURE.

For a sale, the seller shall disclose clearly and conspicuously -

the product and every included core function;

the total price and mandatory charge;

whether any core function depends on an account, internet connection, cloud service, proprietary consumable, separate device, or recurring payment;

the minimum software-support, parts-availability, and continuity period;

whether advertising will appear and where;

any material restriction on repair, transfer, backup, local control, interoperability, or choice of software version permitted by this Act;

the remedy promised after an end-of-service event; and

the identity and service address of the persons responsible for access and remedy.

(b) DURABLE RECEIPT.

At or promptly after payment, the seller shall provide without charge a durable receipt containing the information in subsection (a), a transaction identifier, date, seller, applicable warranty, and a plain-language statement of rights under this Act.

(c) ACCOUNT-INDEPENDENT ACCESS.

The seller shall permit download of the receipt without logging in and shall provide a method to recover it using reasonable transaction evidence. Failure to retain a receipt does not defeat other proof of purchase.

(d) MACHINE-READABLE STANDARD.

Not later than 18 months after enactment, the Commission, in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shall specify an open, nonproprietary format for machine-readable ownership receipts. The standard shall minimize personal data and permit cryptographic verification without enabling routine tracking of transfers.

SEC. 205. HIERARCHY OF REPRESENTATIONS.

(a) PROMINENT PROMISE CONTROLS.

If representations conflict, the interpretation most favorable to durable ownership among the product’s advertising, packaging, interface, demonstration, receipt, warranty, and negotiated terms controls over non-negotiated boilerplate.

(b) PAROL EVIDENCE AND INTEGRATION TERMS.

No integration, merger, or no-reliance clause excludes evidence of a public or individualized representation relevant to classification, core function, duration, durability, or dependency.

(c) MODEL AND GENERATION CHANGES.

A seller may not avoid an existing promise by renaming a product, application, plan, account tier, model, generation, or legal entity.

SEC. 206. BAN ON RETROACTIVE RECLASSIFICATION AND PAYWALLS.

(a) GENERAL RULE.

After a sale, no seller may -

reclassify the transaction as a license, rental, or subscription;

impose a recurring charge to retain a core function;

condition access on acceptance of a materially adverse term unrelated to safety, security, privacy, or legal compliance;

shorten an indefinite entitlement; or

convert a locally operable function to mandatory remote service.

(b) OPTIONAL NEW SERVICES.

A seller may charge for a genuinely new and severable service or capability developed after sale if declining it does not reduce, burden, or make unsafe an existing core function.

(c) UNAVOIDABLE LEGAL IMPOSSIBILITY.

If a final court order or change in law makes continued performance unlawful, the seller shall comply with the continuity ladder in section 504 and may not retain consideration for value it can no longer provide.

SEC. 207. BUNDLES, CAPABILITIES, AND PAID ADD-ONS.

(a) OWNERSHIP OF PURCHASED CAPABILITY.

A capability physically present in purchased hardware and enabled, separately purchased, advertised as included, or necessary to a core function is part of the sale. The seller may not later disable or meter it because the capability was implemented in software.

(b) BUNDLED SERVICE.

Expiration or cancellation of a bundled service may end only the clearly identified service component. It may not impair the purchased product beyond the minimum technically unavoidable loss disclosed before sale.

(c) ADD-ONS.

A paid downloadable-content item, feature unlock, map, filter, theme, expansion, storage module, or other add-on represented as a purchase is itself a sale and remains usable with every compatible version the seller is required to support.

(d) REPLACEMENT DEVICE.

An owner may reinstall a purchased capability or add-on on a replacement device owned by that person, subject to reasonable anti-fraud measures that do not impose a new price or destroy durable access.

SEC. 208. POST-PURCHASE ADVERTISING.

(a) DEFAULT PROHIBITION.

A seller may not introduce an advertisement into a purchased product, core function, operating-system surface, notification channel, or digital good after sale unless the placement, category, and material frequency were clearly and conspicuously disclosed before sale.

(b) AD-FREE REPRESENTATIONS.

If a product was represented as ad-free or no advertising was disclosed where a reasonable purchaser would not expect it, advertising may be introduced only with the owner’s affirmative express consent and either -

fair compensation chosen by the owner;

a fully functional ad-free option at no additional charge; or

the owner’s election of a full refund or replacement of comparable value.

(c) MATERIAL INCREASE.

A material increase in advertising, use of a new sensitive-data category for advertising, or placement that interferes with a core function is a material adverse change requiring renewed affirmative express consent.

(d) PROHIBITED LOCATIONS AND PRACTICES.

Regardless of disclosure, an advertisement may not -

obstruct a safety warning, emergency control, accessibility feature, repair interface, or cancellation control;

simulate a system or security notice;

wake a sleeping product or activate audio without request;

use personal digital property for targeting without separate consent; or

consume metered data, ink, energy, battery capacity, or another paid resource in more than a de minimis amount without reimbursement or opt-in.

(e) USER CONTROL.

An owner shall have a single readily accessible control to disable optional seller messages and delete advertising profiles, without loss of a core function.

SEC. 209. UPSTREAM LICENSES AND ALLOCATION OF COMMERCIAL RISK.

(a) SELLER RESPONSIBILITY.

A seller that represents a transaction as a sale bears the commercial risk that an upstream copyright, patent, trademark, distribution, cloud, music, likeness, or other agreement is insufficient to provide the promised ownership interest.

(b) NO DEFENSE AGAINST PURCHASER.

The expiration, termination, breach, or inadequacy of an upstream agreement is not a defense to a purchaser’s claim for durable access, continuity, replacement, or refund, unless the purchaser caused the event by fraud.

(c) ALLOCATION AMONG COMMERCIAL ACTORS.

Commercial actors may allocate responsibility, indemnity, escrow cost, and contribution among themselves, but such allocation does not reduce purchaser rights.

(d) PLATFORM DUTY.

A platform that controls authentication or removal and knowingly offers a third-party digital good as a sale is jointly responsible for restoring access or delivering an effective remedy. A platform that neither selected the representation nor had control over access is liable only for its own conduct after receiving specific notice and a reasonable opportunity to cure.

SEC. 210. PROHIBITED CONTRACTUAL TERMS AND PRACTICES.

In addition to section 108, it is unlawful to -

reserve a power to remove a purchased item for business convenience or an upstream dispute;

make a refund the sole remedy for a willful or repeated ownership violation where continued use is technically feasible;

require periodic online authentication when an equally effective offline or device-bound method is reasonably available;

condition warranty, support, or access on purchase of an unrelated subscription, consumable, or service;

describe a support period as indefinite, lifetime, or permanent without identifying the measured life and the obligor;

charge an inactivity, account-recovery, entitlement-restoration, receipt-retrieval, or export fee;

use a dark pattern or obstruction to cause acceptance of a lesser transaction; or

retaliate by degrading another product or account after a person rejects a change or exercises a right.

SEC. 211. EXCEPTIONS FOR GIFTS, OPEN LICENSES, AND BESPOKE ENTERPRISE TRANSACTIONS.

(a) GRATUITOUS ACCESS.

A person may terminate access supplied wholly without consideration if no ownership promise was made, personal digital property is exportable, and termination is not used to impair a separately purchased product.

(b) OPEN AND PUBLIC LICENSES.

Nothing in this Act requires an author or developer to charge for, support, or continue distributing work offered under a free, open-source, Creative Commons, public-domain, or similar license. A downstream commercial seller remains responsible for its own promises.

(c) BESPOKE ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS.

Sections 201 through 204 may be varied in a transaction between sophisticated commercial entities if -

neither party is a consumer or qualifying small entity;

material terms are individually negotiated by persons represented by counsel or a procurement professional;

the agreement expressly identifies each varied section; and

the variation does not impair the rights of an employee, household member, downstream consumer, or other third party.

SEC. 301. SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS.

(a) COVERED ARRANGEMENTS.

This title applies to every subscription and recurring charge in or affecting commerce, whether entered online, by telephone, in person, by mail, through an application store, through a device, or as part of a membership, lease, trial, warranty, donation, entertainment, communications, security, health, fitness, education, home, vehicle, or professional service.

(b) EXCLUSIONS.

This title does not apply to -

a recurring transfer initiated separately by the consumer for each payment;

payroll deduction or an employer benefit governed by Federal benefits law;

a recurring payment of tax, court-ordered support, or public utility charge whose cancellation is governed by a more protective law; or

a loan payment under a closed-end credit agreement that states the fixed number and amount of payments,

except that an optional ancillary product or automatic refinancing feature remains covered.

(c) MATERIAL TERMS.

For purposes of this title, “material terms” include the seller’s identity; product; recurring amount or method of calculation; frequency; minimum term; renewal date; trial end; cancellation deadline and method; refund rule; post-cancellation effect; and any material data, advertising, or product dependency.

SEC. 302. SEPARATE, EXPRESS, AND INFORMED CONSENT.

(a) GENERAL RULE.

A seller may not obtain billing information or submit a recurring charge unless, immediately before the consumer commits -

all material terms are clear and conspicuous;

the recurring nature and total charge for the initial period appear adjacent to the consent control;

consent to the recurring charge is separate from consent to any other purchase or term;

no control is preselected; and

the consumer provides affirmative express consent.

(b) COPY.

The seller shall promptly provide a durable record of consent and material terms, with a direct cancellation control.

(c) TELEPHONE.

For a telephone transaction, the seller shall record and retain the consumer’s oral consent or obtain a signed confirmation before charging. The consumer shall be informed of the recording and may request a copy without charge.

(d) IN-PERSON TRANSACTIONS.

For an in-person transaction, consent must be written or entered by the consumer on a device that displays the material terms. A signature on a general receipt or membership form is insufficient unless the recurring authorization is separately initialed or selected.

(e) NO CONSENT BY USE.

Continued use, silence, failure to return an item, or failure to notice a charge is not affirmative express consent.

SEC. 303. RENEWAL REMINDERS AND ANNUAL ACCOUNT STATEMENT.

(a) REMINDERS.

A seller shall deliver a clear reminder -

for a monthly or more frequent subscription, not fewer than 3 and not more than 7 days before the first paid charge after a trial and at least once every 6 months thereafter;

for a term longer than 1 month but shorter than 1 year, not fewer than 7 and not more than 21 days before each renewal; and

for an annual or longer term, once between 30 and 45 days and again between 3 and 7 days before renewal.

(b) CONTENT.

A reminder shall state the product, amount, charge date, changed terms, and a direct means to cancel. It shall not include promotional material above or more prominently than the required information.

(c) DELIVERY.

The seller shall use the consumer’s selected communication channel and at least one channel reasonably calculated to reach the consumer. If a message is returned undeliverable, the seller shall use another available channel before charging.

(d) ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION STATEMENT.

Once each year, a seller with an active subscription shall provide a single-page or single-screen statement listing -

every active plan and add-on with that seller;

amounts paid during the preceding 12 months;

the next charge and renewal date;

the date of the consumer’s most recent affirmative use, if tracked;

available lower-cost plans that provide substantially the same functions; and

a control to cancel, downgrade, or pause each plan.

SEC. 304. SIMPLE CANCELLATION AND REVOCATION OF AUTHORIZATION.

(a) SAME-MEANS RULE.

A consumer may cancel through every medium by which the seller permits enrollment, and through an online method requiring no more steps, time, information, or human interaction than enrollment.

(b) ONE-STEP CONTROL.

Every account, bill, renewal notice, and electronic receipt shall contain a plainly labeled “Cancel subscription” control that -

is continuously available;

does not require a call, chat, survey, explanation, offer review, or repeated confirmation;

displays the effective date and refund before final confirmation; and

immediately produces a confirmation number and durable record.

One confirmation screen that prevents accidental cancellation is permitted if the confirmation control is at least as prominent as the control to continue.

(c) NO SAVE-ATTEMPT OBSTRUCTION.

A seller may present not more than one optional retention offer after the consumer selects cancellation. The offer must have a clearly labeled rejection control of equal prominence and may not reset the process.

(d) REVOCATION THROUGH INTERMEDIARY.

A consumer may revoke authorization through a billing intermediary under section 311. Revocation is effective for the seller upon receipt by the intermediary.

(e) EFFECTIVE TIME.

Cancellation is effective when communicated. The consumer may choose immediate termination with a pro rata refund or access through the paid period without renewal, except where another law requires a different remedy.

(f) SERVICE OUTAGE.

If the ordinary cancellation channel is unavailable, any reasonable written or oral communication that identifies the consumer and subscription is effective. The seller bears the risk of its unavailable system.

SEC. 305. PRICE INCREASES AND MATERIAL CHANGES.

(a) RENEWED CONSENT.

A seller may not impose a price increase or material adverse change unless the consumer, after receiving a comparison of old and new terms, provides renewed affirmative express consent.

(b) NO DEEMED CONSENT.

Notice followed by silence is insufficient. If the consumer does not consent, the subscription ends at the conclusion of the paid period without penalty.

(c) LIMITED INDEXED CHANGE.

At initial enrollment, a consumer may separately authorize an objectively indexed annual increase not exceeding the lower of -

the 12-month percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers; or

5 percent.

The seller must still provide notice, and any greater or differently calculated increase requires renewed consent.

(d) PLAN ELIMINATION.

Eliminating a plan does not authorize migration to a higher-priced, advertising-supported, or materially different plan. The consumer must choose the replacement.

SEC. 306. TRIALS, PROMOTIONS, AND CONVERSION.

(a) NO PAYMENT CREDENTIAL BY DEFAULT.

A seller may not require a payment credential for a trial advertised as “free” unless the advertisement states with equal prominence that the trial automatically becomes paid and identifies the amount and date.

(b) REMINDER AND SIMPLE CHOICE.

Not fewer than 3 and not more than 7 days before conversion, the seller shall obtain a one-screen choice to begin paid service or allow the trial to end. Silence ends the trial without charge.

(c) EXTENDED TRIAL.

For a trial longer than 30 days, the seller shall additionally remind the consumer at the midpoint or 30 days before conversion, whichever is later.

(d) PROMOTIONAL PRICE.

The regular price, first date of that price, and cancellation control shall be displayed as prominently as the promotional price. Conversion from a discounted price to the regular price requires renewed consent if the regular price was not separately selected at enrollment.

(e) NO LOSS OF PURCHASE.

Declining conversion may not impair a separately purchased product, data export, or core function.

SEC. 307. REFUNDS AND POST-CANCELLATION CHARGES.

(a) UNAUTHORIZED CHARGE.

A charge obtained without compliance with sections 302 through 306 is unauthorized. The seller shall refund it automatically within 7 business days after discovery or notice, without requiring the consumer to prove nonuse.

(b) PERIOD AFTER CANCELLATION.

A charge submitted after effective cancellation shall be refunded at 3 times the charge or $100, whichever is greater, unless the seller proves an isolated good-faith error corrected within 5 business days before suit.

(c) SERVICE UNAVAILABILITY.

The consumer is entitled to an automatic pro rata credit for a material outage exceeding 24 consecutive hours or 3 percent of the billing period, unless the outage was caused by the consumer or a disaster outside the seller’s reasonable control and the contract supplies a more favorable continuity remedy.

(d) REFUND METHOD.

A refund shall be made to the original payment method or, at the consumer’s election, by another method that provides money. Store credit may not be imposed.

(e) NO RETURN OF CONSUMED INFORMATION.

A seller may not deny a refund solely because the consumer accessed content before discovering an unauthorized charge, but a court may prevent unjust enrichment for proven intentional abuse.

SEC. 308. FAILURE TO USE; DORMANCY; PAUSE RIGHTS.

(a) DORMANCY NOTICE.

If a seller can reasonably determine that a consumer has not affirmatively used a subscription for 90 consecutive days while paying, the seller shall notify the consumer and offer cancellation, pause, or continuation through equal controls.

(b) EXTENDED DORMANCY.

After 180 consecutive days without affirmative use, the seller may not submit another charge without renewed affirmative express consent, unless -

the subscription primarily preserves storage, monitoring, insurance-like protection, security, or another standby benefit that remains actively supplied;

the consumer expressly elected automatic continuation for that standby benefit; or

tracking use would require collection of data the seller does not otherwise collect, in which case no new tracking is required.

(c) PAUSE.

A subscription with a minimum term of 3 months or longer shall permit at least one pause of up to 3 months per year without a reactivation fee, except a seller may recover a disclosed, reasonable cost to preserve dedicated physical capacity.

(d) NO FORCED DATA COLLECTION.

This section does not authorize collection of browsing, viewing, location, health, communications, or other sensitive data solely to determine use.

SEC. 309. DEATH, INCAPACITY, MILITARY ORDERS, DISASTERS, AND HARDSHIP.

(a) DEATH.

Upon reasonable notice of a subscriber’s death, a seller shall stop future charges as of the date of death, refund later charges, preserve transferable property, and cooperate with an authorized fiduciary under Title VIII.

(b) INCAPACITY.

A legally authorized representative may cancel or pause a subscription for an incapacitated person using reasonable proof. A seller may not require a court order if a facially valid power of attorney or equivalent authority is sufficient under State law.

(c) MILITARY AND DISASTER.

A consumer may cancel or pause without penalty upon permanent-change-of-station orders, deployment of 90 days or longer, evacuation, displacement, or loss of access caused by a declared disaster.

(d) MEDICAL AND FINANCIAL HARDSHIP.

For a prepaid term longer than 3 months involving a physical location or individualized ongoing service, a consumer who cannot reasonably use the service because of serious illness, disability, relocation of more than 25 miles, or unemployment may cancel subject only to a reasonable charge for value actually delivered.

(e) DOCUMENTATION MINIMIZATION.

A seller may request only documentation reasonably necessary to establish the event and shall protect it as sensitive data.

SEC. 310. DATA, CONTENT, AND PURCHASED-PROPERTY ACCESS AFTER CANCELLATION.

(a) SEPARATION.

Cancellation of a subscription ends only the subscription. It does not terminate access to a separately purchased digital good, core hardware function, durable receipt, stored value, or personal digital property.

(b) EXPORT PERIOD.

The seller shall preserve and permit export of personal digital property for at least 180 days after cancellation, and longer when Title VIII or another law requires.

(c) DELETION.

After export, a consumer may request deletion subject to legal retention duties, fraud prevention, security logs, and the rights of other persons. The seller shall identify retained categories and periods.

(d) DOWNGRADE.

If a paid subscription is associated with a free account tier, cancellation shall result in the least destructive available downgrade. The seller shall give a clear warning and reasonable export period before deleting excess data.

SEC. 311. DUTIES OF BILLING INTERMEDIARIES AND PLATFORMS.

(a) CENTRAL CONTROL.

A billing intermediary that presents recurring charges to consumers shall provide a searchable dashboard listing the payee, amount, frequency, most recent charge, next estimated charge, and a control to revoke future authorization.

(b) EFFECT OF REVOCATION.

Upon revocation, the intermediary shall -

stop recurring charges identified by the consumer;

promptly notify the seller;

issue a durable confirmation; and

permit the seller to submit only a separately authorized final amount.

(c) NO ACCOUNT RETALIATION.

A platform may not threaten loss of unrelated purchased property or suspend an entire payment account merely because a consumer revokes one merchant’s recurring authorization or disputes a charge in good faith.

(d) NOTICE-AND-ACTION.

After documented notice that a seller persistently submits unauthorized recurring charges, an intermediary with practical control shall investigate, preserve evidence, and take proportionate steps, including enhanced confirmation, suspension of recurring capability, or termination. The intermediary is not required to adjudicate an underlying service dispute unrelated to authorization.

(e) SAFE HARBOR.

An intermediary is not liable for a seller’s initial violation if it complied with this section, did not design or control the unlawful interface, did not knowingly share in the unlawful gain beyond ordinary processing fees, and promptly corrected its own records.

SEC. 312. RECORDS AND BURDEN OF PROOF.

(a) RETENTION.

A seller shall retain evidence of each affirmative express consent, material-term version, notice, cancellation, and charge for 6 years after the later of the transaction or final charge.

(b) CONSUMER ACCESS.

Within 10 business days after request, the seller shall provide the consumer a copy in a usable format without charge.

(c) BURDEN.

The seller bears the burden of proving valid consent, notice, and authorization. Absence of a required record creates a rebuttable presumption of violation.

(d) DATA MINIMIZATION.

Records shall contain no more personal data than reasonably needed to establish compliance and shall be protected under applicable privacy and security law.

SEC. 313. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAW.

(a) ROSCA.

This title supplements the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act and applies to online and offline transactions. A violation of this title is also a violation of section 4 of that Act.

(b) ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFER ACT.

Nothing in this title reduces a right to stop payment, dispute an unauthorized electronic fund transfer, or obtain error resolution under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act or Regulation E.

(c) STATE LAW.

State automatic-renewal, negative-option, health-club, dating-service, home-service, gift-card, and cancellation laws providing greater protection are preserved.

(d) COMMISSION AUTHORITY.

The Commission may issue rules that increase clarity or protection but may not deem notice plus silence to be consent, authorize a cancellation method more burdensome than enrollment, or reduce a statutory period or remedy.

SEC. 401. SCOPE; PROTECTED DIGITAL PROPERTY INTEREST.

(a) COVERED PROPERTY.

This title applies to a digital good, computer program, application, game, audiovisual or audio work, electronic book, downloadable content, virtual item, paid feature, account entitlement, access credential, personal digital property, stored value, and any copy or component of such property supplied in connection with a covered transaction.

(b) DURABLE DIGITAL PROPERTY INTEREST.

A sale of a digital good creates in the owner a nonwaivable durable digital property interest in the particular copy, entitlement, or functional equivalent acquired. Subject to the rights of other persons and the tailored provisions of this Act, that interest includes the practical ability to -

identify and prove the entitlement;

retrieve, download, render, execute, and use the digital good for the promised duration;

make and restore a reasonable number of personal archival, device-migration, accessibility, and disaster-recovery copies;

retain the purchased features, content, quality, and compatibility constituting the protected baseline under section 407;

use the digital good without avoidable periodic authentication or unilateral revocation;

receive continuity, migration, replacement, or monetary relief under Title V;

transfer, lend, and devise the interest as provided in Title VIII; and

obtain the remedies and protections applicable to property under this Act.

(c) FORM OF DELIVERY IMMATERIAL.

The interest described in subsection (b) may arise whether delivery occurs by download, remote storage, streaming on demand, application store, activation code, device installation, cryptographic token, account entry, or another technical method. A seller-controlled copy may satisfy the duty only while it provides durable access and the continuity protections required by this Act.

(d) COPYRIGHT AND OTHER PERSONS’ RIGHTS.

Ownership of a copy or entitlement under this title does not convey authorship, copyright title, a right of public performance, a right to distribute additional simultaneously usable copies, another person’s private data, or a trade secret, except to the limited extent expressly authorized by this Act or another law. A restriction genuinely necessary to protect such a right remains subject to sections 107(d), 410, 504, and 609.

(e) HONEST LIMITED TRANSACTIONS.

This title does not convert an honestly disclosed subscription, rental, time-limited license, live professional service, communication service, or metered computing service into a sale. A component classified as a sale under Title II remains protected even when bundled with such a service.

(f) NO POSSESSION FICTION.

The absence of a local file, the use of encryption, the retention of a master copy by a seller, or the technical creation of transient copies does not negate a durable digital property interest.

SEC. 402. DURABLE ACCESS, ENTITLEMENT RECORDS, AND AUTHENTICATION.

(a) GENERAL DUTY.

For the reasonable useful life of a purchased digital good, each seller with practical control over delivery or authentication shall provide durable access and shall not intentionally or recklessly make the entitlement unusable, undiscoverable, or dependent on a service the seller has not undertaken to preserve under Title V.

(b) ENTITLEMENT LEDGER.

A seller shall maintain an accurate, reasonably redundant entitlement ledger that records, for each purchase -

the product, edition, version, region if lawfully relevant, and included add-ons;

the transaction date, price, seller, and platform;

the promised duration and support period;

transfers, refunds, replacements, and lawful revocations; and

information sufficient to restore the entitlement without collecting data unnecessary for that purpose.

The owner may obtain the owner’s entries in human-readable and open machine-readable form without charge. A discrepancy between the ledger and a durable receipt shall be resolved under section 205, and a seller may not treat its failure to retain a record as proof that no purchase occurred.

(c) DOWNLOAD AND RESTORATION.

If a digital good is technically capable of being stored on an owner-controlled device, the seller shall permit an owner to download and reinstall a usable copy during the reasonable useful life. The seller may impose a reasonable concurrent-device limit disclosed before sale, but shall provide a prompt process to deactivate a lost, destroyed, inaccessible, or transferred device and may not impose a restoration, device-change, or account-recovery fee.

(d) AUTHENTICATION MINIMIZATION.

A seller may require initial or risk-based authentication reasonably necessary to establish entitlement, prevent theft, or protect another person’s rights.

A seller may not require continuous connectivity or periodic reauthentication for a locally usable digital good when a device-bound, owner-held, or time-extended credential would provide substantially equivalent protection.

An authentication interval shall be no shorter than reasonably necessary for the documented risk addressed and, absent a specific showing, shall not be shorter than 180 days for a purchased single-user digital good capable of local operation.

Failure of an authentication service, seller network, or account system shall not be treated as evidence that the owner lacks an entitlement.

Before an authentication dependency is discontinued, the seller shall comply with Title V.

(e) FORMAT AND PLATFORM MIGRATION.

If the seller replaces a storefront, file format, rights-management system, operating environment, or account architecture, it shall migrate each entitlement without charge and preserve materially equivalent quality, functionality, metadata, accessibility, saves, and add-ons. If complete migration is not reasonably possible, the owner shall choose among continued access to the prior system, an interoperable local copy, a comparable replacement, or the applicable remedy under section 504.

(f) NO FORCED REPURCHASE.

A seller may not require an owner to repurchase a digital good merely because the owner replaces a device, changes a permitted operating system, changes an email address, rejects a nonessential update, moves within the United States, or migrates to a successor account or platform controlled by the same person or an affiliate.

SEC. 403. ACCOUNT PROPERTY VAULT.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.

A platform or seller that uses an account both for conduct-regulated services and for access to purchased property shall maintain an account property vault logically and operationally separable from posting, messaging, matchmaking, social, advertising, marketplace-selling, or other conduct-regulated functions.

(b) CONTENTS.

The vault shall preserve and make accessible -

purchased digital goods, paid add-ons, and durable entitlements;

durable receipts, transaction history, warranty records, license keys, and support-until dates;

paid stored value and the purchased portion of virtual currency;

save files, configurations, user-created works, accessibility settings, and other personal digital property;

transfer, export, download, inheritance, refund, and account-recovery functions; and

notices, evidence, and appeal records concerning any restriction.

(c) ACCESS DURING RESTRICTION.

When an account is suspended, restricted, closed, or terminated, the owner shall retain read-only and download access to the vault and any local-use or redownload function that does not materially enable the conduct giving rise to the restriction. Access shall continue for not less than 1 year after final resolution of the restriction and longer for the reasonable useful life of purchased property or as required by Title VIII.

(d) ACCESS METHOD.

The seller shall provide a secure method to enter the vault that does not require use of the suspended social, marketplace, or community function. If ordinary credentials are unavailable or compromised, the seller shall offer reasonable identity and transaction-evidence alternatives. The method may protect against account takeover but may not demand information the seller did not require from similarly situated active users unless reasonably necessary to resolve a specific risk.

(e) NO WAIVER THROUGH CONSOLIDATION.

A seller may not evade this section by combining multiple products, services, family members, brands, or legal entities into a single account. If the seller elects to consolidate them, it bears the cost of preserving separable property access.

(f) TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION.

The Commission, in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, may issue standards for secure vault segregation, delegated fiduciary access, and account recovery. Failure to issue a standard does not postpone the duty to provide the functions specified in this section.

SEC. 404. ACCOUNT RESTRICTION, SUSPENSION, AND TERMINATION PROCEDURES.

(a) NOTICE BEFORE ADVERSE ACTION.

Except as provided in subsection (d), before materially restricting an account, a seller shall deliver a clear and conspicuous notice stating -

the particular account and function affected;

the specific contractual or legal ground, stated in plain language;

the date, approximate time, and category of conduct or transaction relied upon;

the duration and practical consequences of the proposed action;

whether an automated system materially contributed to the determination;

the property, stored value, and export functions that will remain available;

the evidence reasonably necessary to understand and contest the action, subject to protection of another person, security, and law-enforcement confidentiality; and

how to obtain prompt human review.

(b) MEANINGFUL OPPORTUNITY TO CONTEST.

The account holder shall receive not fewer than 14 days to contest a nonemergency action before it becomes final. The seller shall permit submission of a statement and reasonably available documents, review material information favorable to the account holder, and issue a written decision by a trained human who was not the sole maker of the initial decision.

(c) DECISION DEADLINES.

A request concerning loss of access to housing, health, safety, education, employment, assistive technology, or substantially all purchased property shall be reviewed within 72 hours.

Another restriction shall be reviewed within 10 business days.

If the seller cannot complete review within the applicable period for reasons outside its reasonable control, it shall restore the least risky affected functions pending decision unless specific evidence shows that restoration would create material harm.

(d) EMERGENCY TEMPORARY ACTION.

A seller may act without advance notice when it reasonably and in good faith believes immediate action is necessary to prevent ongoing fraud, account takeover, credible physical harm, unlawful dissemination, material cybersecurity injury, or destruction of evidence. The action shall be limited to the affected function, notice shall be given as soon as legally and practically possible and ordinarily within 24 hours, and human review shall be available immediately. A temporary action lasting more than 14 days requires a new written finding based on current evidence.

(e) COMPROMISED ACCOUNTS.

An account holder shall not lose property because an unauthorized person obtained credentials. Upon reasonable proof of compromise, the seller shall secure the account, preserve records, reverse unauthorized transfers within its control, restore entitlements, and provide the owner a record of material changes. The seller may quarantine a disputed item while investigating but may not suspend unaffected property.

(f) FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNTS.

Misconduct by one household member shall not restrict property independently acquired by another. A platform using a family account shall provide a reasonable process to separate profiles, receipts, saves, parental controls, and entitlements, consistent with the original transaction and the privacy and safety of minors.

(g) DEATH, INCAPACITY, AND NAME OR CONTACT CHANGE.

An account may not be terminated solely because an owner dies, becomes incapacitated, changes a legal name, changes contact information, or cannot use a particular biometric or device. Access shall be transferred or delegated in accordance with section 803.

(h) NO DUTY TO HOST SPEECH.

This section does not require a platform to continue publishing, recommending, monetizing, or distributing user speech. It requires preservation of property, value, records, and functions that can be separated from the regulated speech or conduct.

SEC. 405. SEPARATION OF CONDUCT SANCTIONS FROM PROPERTY CONFISCATION.

(a) NEXUS AND PROPORTIONALITY.

A restriction imposed for account conduct shall be directed to the service, communication, transaction, device, item, or privilege materially connected to that conduct and shall be no broader or longer than reasonably necessary to prevent recurrence or remedy harm.

(b) PERMISSIBLE FUNCTIONAL SANCTIONS.

Subject to section 404, a seller may restrict posting, messaging, matchmaking, competitive ranking, marketplace listing, payment initiation, public sharing, or another conduct-dependent function when the sanction has a documented nexus to misuse of that function. Restriction of network play does not by itself authorize loss of a purchased game’s local campaign, editor, saves, or lawfully enabled community-hosting mode.

(c) PROPERTY NOT SUBJECT TO PRIVATE FORFEITURE.

Except under subsection (d), a seller may not permanently confiscate, erase, expire, or render unusable -

an unrelated purchased digital good or add-on;

a core function of purchased hardware;

personal digital property or a lawful backup;

paid stored value or the paid portion of virtual currency;

a durable receipt, warranty, repair, export, transfer, or inheritance right; or

an entitlement held by an innocent household member.

(d) PARTICULAR PROPERTY OBTAINED OR USED UNLAWFULLY.

A seller may reverse or quarantine a particular entitlement, transfer, item, or unit of stored value if it proves that the item was obtained through fraud, theft, counterfeit payment, or an unauthorized duplication, or if a particularized court order requires the action. Before permanent deprivation, the seller shall provide the procedure in section 404 unless notice is legally prohibited. A disputed charge does not authorize deprivation of property bought in a separate transaction.

(e) PAID VIRTUAL ITEMS AND VALUE.

A rule that describes paid virtual items or currency as having “no value” does not permit forfeiture. If continued use of a paid item would undermine competitive integrity, the platform shall, in order of preference, permit use in a noncompetitive or local mode, exchange the item for an equivalent, restore the paid value, or provide a monetary refund. Promotional items obtained without consideration may be treated differently if the distinction was clearly disclosed.

(f) DEBT AND CHARGEBACKS.

A seller may pursue a lawful debt or temporarily limit new purchases during a good-faith payment dispute. It may not hold unrelated property, personal digital property, or stored value hostage to payment of the disputed amount, and may not retaliate against a good-faith chargeback or complaint.

(g) PUBLIC FORFEITURE UNAFFECTED EXCEPT AS PROVIDED.

This section governs private commercial sanctions. A governmental seizure or forfeiture is governed by Title XI and other applicable law.

SEC. 406. REMOVAL CLAIMS, UPSTREAM RIGHTS, AND PLATFORM GUARANTIES.

(a) NO BUSINESS-CONVENIENCE REMOVAL.

A seller may not remove a purchased digital good because of a change in strategy, a product delisting, an acquisition, an expired distribution arrangement, a royalty dispute, an unavailable upstream service, or another matter among commercial actors.

(b) UPSTREAM-RIGHTS RISK.

The duties in section 209 apply. Before offering a digital good as a sale, the seller shall obtain rights or commercial protections reasonably sufficient to supply durable access, a lawful downloadable or successor copy, or a complete remedy for the represented duration. A contractual right to delist future sales is not a right to revoke completed sales.

(c) PLATFORM GUARANTY.

A platform that accepts or directs payment, labels the transaction, maintains the entitlement ledger, or controls continued access is a guarantor of the owner-facing remedy. It may seek indemnification or contribution from a publisher or licensor, but shall not require the owner to locate or sue an upstream actor.

(d) COLORABLE INTELLECTUAL-PROPERTY CLAIM.

If a seller receives a colorable claim that continued delivery would infringe a right, it may temporarily suspend new distribution of the contested material and take the least restrictive action necessary as to existing owners. It shall -

preserve entitlement and transaction records;

notify affected owners unless legally prohibited;

seek authority for continued personal use, substitute a lawful equivalent, or invoke the continuity ladder;

restore access promptly if the claim is withdrawn or rejected; and

avoid disclosing claimant-confidential material not needed to understand the action.

(e) NO REQUIRED INFRINGEMENT; REMEDY REMAINS.

Nothing in this section compels infringement. Inability to furnish the original work does not eliminate the seller’s obligation to provide, at the owner’s election, a comparable unencumbered replacement or the monetary remedy under section 504(h).

(f) RECORD OF REMOVAL AUTHORITY.

A seller shall retain for 6 years the legal and factual basis for a mass removal, including the number of owners affected, notice, alternatives considered, and remedies delivered. Privileged material may be logged without waiver and submitted under seal in an enforcement proceeding.

SEC. 407. PROTECTED DIGITAL BASELINE; UPDATES AND COMPATIBILITY.

(a) BASELINE.

The protected digital baseline consists of the content, resolution, performance, accessibility, offline capability, supported input and output, interoperability, included features, absence or level of advertising, and device compatibility -

prominently represented before sale;

demonstrated or enabled at delivery;

reasonably necessary for the customary use of the purchased edition; or

added without a separately disclosed temporary status and used by the owner for 90 days or more.

(b) NO MATERIAL RETROGRESSION.

A seller may not, by update, server configuration, license change, account action, or omission, remove or materially impair the protected digital baseline. Sections 603, 607, 608, and 609 govern advertising, version choice, degradation, and tailored exceptions.

(c) UPDATE DUTY.

During the applicable support period, a seller shall provide updates reasonably necessary to keep the digital good secure, conforming, and compatible with supported devices and services. An update may not make acceptance of a new commercial term a condition of retaining the protected baseline.

(d) COMPATIBILITY TRANSITIONS.

When a seller controls both sides of an interface, it shall not use an interface change to make its own previously sold digital good incompatible. When a third party controls a material interface, the seller shall use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain compatibility and shall provide timely notice, an export or migration path, and the remedy under section 504 if a core use is lost.

(e) OWNER ELECTION AFTER IMPAIRMENT.

After a violation or a permitted change that materially impairs the baseline, the owner may elect restoration, access to the prior version, an equivalent feature or copy, replacement, or a refund sufficient to reflect the price and remaining reasonable useful life. The seller may not force store credit.

SEC. 408. LIVE-SERVICE, SHARED-WORLD, AND COMMUNITY-HOSTED PRODUCTS.

(a) FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION.

A seller of a game, application, creative environment, or other digital product containing live or shared functions shall separately identify before sale -

persistent purchased content and local functions;

seller-hosted social, matchmaking, competitive, moderation, or event functions;

content promised only for a stated season or term;

paid add-ons, virtual items, and stored value; and

the end-of-service implementation selected under Title V.

(b) NO “LIVE SERVICE” EVASION.

Calling a product “live,” “online,” “service-based,” “evolving,” or “shared-world” does not permit removal of a purchased campaign, map, character, editor, cosmetic item, expansion, or other component capable of meaningful continued use without the seller’s live operation.

(c) GENUINELY LIVE COMPONENTS.

The seller need not indefinitely reproduce time-sensitive events, employ moderators, populate a world with seller-controlled participants, license newly created music, maintain rankings, or supply future content not included in the sale. When commercial operation ends, it shall preserve the maximum reasonably separable play, creation, access, and community-hosting functionality under sections 504 and 507.

(d) COMPETITIVE INTEGRITY.

The seller may use proportionate authentication, anti-cheat, and server validation during an active competitive service. At end of service, competitive-integrity restrictions may not prevent local, private, archival, or clearly labeled unofficial community use that does not falsely purport to preserve official rankings.

(e) PAID ITEMS AND CURRENCY.

Before ending a live service, the seller shall allow a reasonable period to use or transfer paid value and shall port paid items to a continuing mode where technically feasible. Any unused paid currency and any item made wholly unusable shall be refunded in money, subject to a credit for value demonstrably and substantially consumed only if the allocation method was disclosed before purchase.

(f) COMMUNITY HOSTING NOT OFFICIAL OPERATION.

A community-hosting release may require truthful unofficial labeling, privacy safeguards, and access controls for unpurchased content. It does not make the seller an operator, publisher, moderator, or guarantor of the community service.

SEC. 409. PRESERVATION OF PERSONAL DIGITAL PROPERTY.

(a) DUTY OF CARE.

A seller that stores personal digital property shall use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards against loss, unauthorized alteration, and deletion, taking account of sensitivity, volume, promised retention, state of the art, and cost. A disclaimer that data may be lost does not excuse grossly negligent, reckless, or intentional destruction.

(b) OWNER-CONTROLLED COPY.

The seller shall provide the continuous export and transfer functions required by Title VIII and shall encourage, but may not require as a condition of remedy, an owner-controlled backup. If the seller represents that it provides backup, synchronization, archival, or preservation, it shall state material exclusions and retention periods.

(c) DELETION WARNING.

Before deleting personal digital property because of inactivity, plan limits, account closure, migration, or service termination, the seller shall provide notice at least 60 days and again at least 7 days before deletion through every verified channel reasonably likely to reach the owner. The notice shall identify the categories and approximate quantity, give a one-step export control, and state the deletion date.

(d) DISPUTE AND FIDUCIARY HOLD.

Upon a good-faith dispute, death notice, fiduciary request, law-enforcement preservation request, or claim of account compromise, the seller shall preserve affected property and logs for at least 180 days, without preventing an owner from obtaining a copy unless law requires restriction.

(e) NO HOSTAGE DATA.

Personal digital property may not be withheld to collect a disputed debt, force subscription renewal, obtain consent to new terms, deter transfer, or retaliate for competition, repair, review, complaint, or litigation.

SEC. 410. SAFETY, SECURITY, PRIVACY, FRAUD, AND LEGAL-COMPLIANCE MEASURES.

(a) SPECIFIC STANDARD.

A person invoking safety, cybersecurity, privacy, fraud prevention, sanctions, export control, or legal compliance to limit a right under this title shall satisfy sections 107(d) and 609. The person shall contemporaneously identify the material harm, evidence, causal connection, less restrictive alternatives, affected functions, duration, review date, and restoration or remedy.

(b) MEASURABLE THRESHOLD.

A generalized possibility, unsupported assertion, preservation of a revenue model, desire for uniformity, avoidance of repair competition, or risk created principally by the seller’s failure to maintain reasonable security is insufficient. For a cybersecurity restriction, the evidence shall identify a vulnerability or threat capable of causing material unauthorized access, data loss, safety harm, or material network disruption, and the restriction shall materially reduce that risk.

(c) PROTECTED INFORMATION.

An assessment need not publicly reveal an exploitable vulnerability, personal information, privileged material, or classified information. It shall be available to the Commission and a court under safeguards, and the consumer shall receive an explanation sufficient to contest the restriction.

(d) RESTORATION.

The restricting person bears the burden of proof, shall review the measure at least every 90 days, and shall restore affected rights when the basis ends. Failure to retain the assessment creates a rebuttable presumption that the restriction was unauthorized.

SEC. 411. PROHIBITED DIGITAL-PROPERTY PRACTICES.

It is unlawful for a seller, directly or through another person, to -

reserve or exercise unilateral discretion to revoke a purchased digital good for business convenience;

condition access to purchased property on consent to unrelated advertising, tracking, arbitration, data use, or a new subscription;

delete an entitlement because the good is delisted or no longer sold;

use a nominal license, token, account, region, affiliate, or delivery architecture to defeat this title;

cause an owner to surrender a lawful backup as a condition of reinstalling or migrating a digital good, except to complete a verified transfer under section 802;

falsely represent that intellectual-property law requires a restriction imposed for commercial reasons;

design an account so that moderation of speech necessarily destroys separable property;

deny access because a receipt uses a former seller name, product identifier, or account system;

impose an entitlement-restoration, vault-access, download, export, or device-deactivation fee; or

discriminate against an owner for using a right, tool, format, repairer, platform, or version protected by this Act.

SEC. 412. ALLOCATION, RECORDS, AND RELATION TO OTHER TITLES.

(a) DUTY AND RECORDS.

A seller shall perform each duty within its practical control; private allocation does not diminish duties under sections 209, 406, 504, and 1406. A mass action affecting 1,000 or more owners requires retention for 6 years of the decision, versions, notices, restoration, and remedies.

(b) CUMULATIVE ENFORCEMENT.

This title supplements Titles II, III, V, VI, and VIII and is enforced under Title XIV. No internal appeal must be exhausted before emergency relief for imminent loss of property.

SEC. 501. CONTINUITY DUTY AND COVERED SELLER-CONTROLLED DEPENDENCIES.

(a) GENERAL DUTY.

A seller that makes a purchased product or core function depend on authentication, hosting, cloud processing, an application store, an account, a proprietary protocol, a rights-management service, or another seller-controlled dependency shall design, fund, document, and periodically test a means for lawful continued use after an end-of-service event.

(b) DEPENDENCY INVENTORY.

Before first sale and throughout the reasonable useful life, the seller shall maintain an inventory identifying -

every external service necessary for a core function;

the person controlling each service and the seller’s right to continue, transfer, or replace it;

material upstream licenses and their expiration or termination conditions;

local, successor, community-hosting, migration, and replacement options;

escrow materials and update schedule;

projected transition cost and the reserve, bond, insurance, guaranty, or other financial assurance available; and

the responsible continuity officer and emergency contact.

(c) PRE-SALE DISCLOSURE.

The ownership disclosure and durable receipt shall identify the minimum support period, the material seller-controlled dependency, and the continuity method reasonably expected to apply. A seller may not state merely that a service may end, access is subject to availability, or no continuity is guaranteed.

(d) DESIGN AGAINST AVOIDABLE DEPENDENCE.

If a core function can reasonably be implemented through an owner-held credential, local processing, a documented local interface, or a nonproprietary protocol without material loss of safety, privacy, or security, the seller shall not design the product to fail solely because the seller ceases operation.

(e) TIERED COMPLIANCE.

A qualifying small entity may use a standardized escrow, open protocol, community-maintained repository, successor cooperative, or insurer-backed refund method approved under section 1604. No small-entity accommodation may authorize remote bricking, destruction of entitlements, sale after a known shutdown without disclosure, or denial of the continuity ladder.

(f) SELLER-DEPENDENT PRODUCT.

In this title, the term “seller-dependent product” means a covered product for which durable access or a core function materially depends on a seller-controlled service, credential, server, account, application, update channel, rights-management system, proprietary remote protocol, or other dependency that an owner cannot reasonably replace or operate without the seller's cooperation.

SEC. 502. CONTINUITY ESCROW, TESTING, AND FINANCIAL ASSURANCE.

(a) ESCROW REQUIRED.

A seller-dependent product first offered after the effective date of this section shall have a continuity deposit with an independent qualified escrow agent or a functionally equivalent mechanism approved by the Commission. The deposit shall include, to the minimum extent necessary to implement the continuity ladder -

executable server or authentication components and configuration files;

source code and reproducible-build material where object code alone cannot reasonably preserve the core function;

keys, certificates, signing or sunset mechanisms, and instructions needed to remove seller authentication;

protocols, schemas, data dictionaries, local and remote interface documentation, and test fixtures;

entitlement-ledger and account-migration specifications that minimize personal data;

dependency, license, and attribution records sufficient to distinguish releasable from nonreleasable material;

installation, administration, security-hardening, and build instructions; and

a license authorized under subsection (f).

(b) CURRENCY OF DEPOSIT.

The seller shall update a material deposit not later than 30 days after a production change and at least once every 6 months. A prior version needed by an installed product shall not be overwritten.

(c) INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION.

At least annually, and after a material architecture change, the escrow agent or an independent laboratory shall test whether a technically competent person using the deposit can activate the selected continuity method. A seller shall cure a material deficiency within 60 days, or within 15 days if a failure is imminent.

(d) FINANCIAL ASSURANCE.

For a seller-controlled dependency supporting 10,000 or more active owners, or any product whose failure foreseeably risks health, safety, housing access, mobility, or loss of irreplaceable personal digital property, the seller shall maintain segregated funds, a surety bond, insurance, a solvent parent guaranty, or equivalent assurance sufficient for notice, migration, escrow release, and remedies. Until the Commission adopts a category-specific amount, the assurance shall equal the lesser of the aggregate maximum refund exposure and the greater of -

the documented cost of operating or transitioning the dependency for 24 months; or

5 percent of the seller’s gross receipts from affected products and required services during the preceding 3 years.

(e) NO CUSTOMER-FUNDING EVASION.

Paid stored value, prepaid service amounts, customer refund reserves, and continuity funds shall be separately accounted for and may not be pledged as general collateral or distributed to an affiliate if doing so would leave the required assurance impaired.

(f) CONTINGENT LICENSE.

At the time of deposit, each person with authority over deposited material shall grant a present, irrevocable upon trigger, nonexclusive license to owners, designated successors, preservation institutions, and qualifying community hosts to use, reproduce, adapt, and distribute the minimum material necessary for lawful continuity. The license shall prohibit distribution of unrelated source, personal data, secrets not necessary for operation, and copies that enable use without an entitlement.

SEC. 503. END-OF-SERVICE TRIGGERS AND NOTICE.

(a) TRIGGER EVENTS.

A continuity trigger occurs upon the earliest of -

a public or internal final decision to end a necessary dependency;

notice of termination or nonrenewal of a necessary upstream right without a committed substitute;

cessation or material impairment lasting 30 consecutive days or 45 aggregate days in a 90-day period, other than scheduled maintenance or an event being diligently repaired;

a bankruptcy filing, general assignment for creditors, receivership, dissolution, liquidation, or cessation of ordinary business by a person whose performance is necessary;

failure to maintain required financial assurance or escrow after notice and a 30-day cure period;

abandonment of security maintenance while continued network dependence exposes owners to a material risk; or

another event making timely performance of the represented support period materially unlikely.

(b) OWNER NOTICE.

Not later than 180 days before a planned end, the seller shall notify each reasonably identifiable owner through the product or service, the account property vault, electronic mail or selected channel, and a prominent public webpage. If 180 days is impossible because of an unplanned event, notice shall issue within 72 hours after the seller knows or should know of the trigger.

(c) CONTENT OF NOTICE.

The notice shall state the affected products and versions, reason and date, functions that will continue or end, owner action required, data and entitlement export deadlines, the selected continuity steps, community-hosting or successor information, unused-value treatment, support contacts, and how to obtain an alternative remedy.

(d) SALES AFTER TRIGGER.

After a trigger, a person may not sell an affected item without displaying the end date and continuity method immediately adjacent to price and obtaining affirmative express consent. An undisclosed post-trigger sale entitles the purchaser to rescission without diminishing other remedies.

(e) NO PREMATURE DELETION.

From trigger through completion of the continuity process, responsible persons shall preserve entitlement ledgers, deposits, personal digital property, builds, keys, documentation, and evidence of upstream authority. Ordinary retention schedules and contract destruction clauses are suspended.

SEC. 504. CONTINUITY LADDER AND OWNER REMEDIES.

(a) ORDER OF PERFORMANCE.

After a trigger, the seller and each person with practical control shall implement the first reasonably practicable step, or combination of steps, that preserves substantially all purchased core functions. A person may pass over a higher step only after documenting why it is technically or legally impossible or would create a material risk that cannot be mitigated under sections 107(d) and 609.

(b) STEP 1 - MAINTAIN OR COMPLETE PROMISED SERVICE.

Continue the dependency through the represented support period, including by curing the upstream default, funding a wind-down, or operating a reduced service that preserves purchased functions.

(c) STEP 2 - TRANSFER TO A QUALIFIED SUCCESSOR.

Transfer operation and entitlements without charge to a solvent successor that accepts this Act’s duties, maintains materially equivalent privacy and security, and does not impose a new price, advertisement, data use, or material loss of function for the already-paid period.

(d) STEP 3 - MIGRATE OR SUBSTITUTE INTEROPERABLE SERVICE.

Migrate entitlements, saves, settings, paid items, and necessary personal digital property to an interoperable seller or third-party service of comparable capability. The owner may reject a substitute that materially worsens privacy, accessibility, advertising, price, or compatibility.

(e) STEP 4 - ENABLE OWNER-CONTROLLED LOCAL OR OFFLINE USE.

Remove periodic authentication, issue a perpetual device or owner credential, provide a final offline-capable build, enable local processing and local-network control, and furnish any lawful converter needed to preserve the protected baseline.

(f) STEP 5 - ENABLE PRIVATE OR COMMUNITY CONTINUITY.

Release the necessary server component, protocol, interface, documentation, and contingent license for private, cooperative, archival, or community hosting under sections 506 and 507. Release source code only when reasonably necessary to build, secure, or adapt the continuity component.

(g) STEP 6 - COMPARABLE REPLACEMENT.

Offer, at the owner’s election, a product or unencumbered entitlement of equal or greater capability, accessibility, quality, privacy, compatibility, and remaining expected life, with no new recurring charge. The owner need not surrender personal digital property or unrelated hardware.

(h) STEP 7 - MONETARY REMEDY.

Only when the preceding steps cannot reasonably preserve the purchased benefit may the seller provide money. The owner shall receive -

for a one-time purchase, the greater of reasonable replacement cost or the purchase price adjusted for inflation and multiplied by the unexpired proportion of the represented or reasonable useful life;

not less than the full inflation-adjusted purchase price when the seller knew of the trigger before sale, failed materially to maintain required escrow or assurance, or willfully destroyed a feasible continuity method;

the full price of a paid add-on or item rendered wholly unusable, unless its separate finite consumption was disclosed and substantially completed;

a pro rata refund of prepaid subscription charges for unavailable time;

the money value of unused paid stored value or virtual currency; and

reasonably foreseeable migration and replacement costs caused by noncompliance.

No remedy may be forced into store credit, and value received from unrelated functions may not reduce the amount.

(i) OWNER CHOICE.

When two or more methods at the same practicable level would preserve use, the owner may choose among them. An owner may select the monetary remedy instead of a replacement that requires materially different hardware, surveillance, advertising, accessibility, or recurring cost.

(j) PARTIAL CONTINUITY.

Preserving one function does not excuse loss of another. Each severable purchased component shall proceed through the ladder independently.

SEC. 505. COMPANY FAILURE, ABANDONMENT, AND EMERGENCY STEWARDSHIP.

(a) IMMEDIATE DUTIES.

An officer, director, receiver, trustee, assignee, custodian, or other person controlling an affected seller after insolvency or abandonment shall preserve continuity property, notify the Commission and escrow agent, prevent destruction or disablement, and cooperate in activation of the ladder.

(b) LIMITED EMERGENCY STEWARDSHIP.

Upon a showing that an end-of-service event threatens imminent mass loss, a district court may appoint a technically qualified neutral steward to secure entitlement records, direct escrow testing, issue notices, maintain a minimal dependency, or implement a release. The steward shall protect privileged, personal, security-sensitive, and trade-secret information and shall act no longer than necessary.

(c) NO PERSONAL LIABILITY FOR GOOD-FAITH PRESERVATION.

A natural person who, without gross negligence or self-dealing, preserves or transfers continuity materials in reasonable reliance on this Act is not personally liable for breach of a contrary corporate instruction or contract term.

(d) PRIORITY OF PRACTICAL CONTINUITY.

Where continued use can be preserved at less cost than aggregate refunds, a fiduciary shall consider continuity as a value-preserving disposition for owners and the estate, not merely as uncompensated specific performance.

SEC. 506. END-OF-LIFE UNLOCKING AND RELEASE.

(a) REQUIRED RESULT.

At the end of the support period or seller operation, a purchased product shall not remain dependent on a discontinued authentication, account, cloud, or server merely because the seller retained a technical lock. The seller shall release the minimum unlock, credential, interface, server component, or replacement build necessary for meaningful continued use.

(b) RELEASE PACKAGE.

The package shall be documented, reasonably installable, available without charge from at least two durable repositories, cryptographically verifiable where appropriate, and accompanied by the license, build, and security information necessary for its intended use.

(c) ENTITLEMENT PRESERVATION.

An unlock may verify existing entitlements, but shall provide an account-independent method and shall not require disclosure of unnecessary identity information. If the seller can no longer verify a record because it failed to preserve the ledger, a durable receipt or other credible transaction evidence controls.

(d) NO DELIBERATE INCOMPATIBILITY.

A seller may not issue a final update, key rotation, certificate expiration, server command, or parts change designed or reasonably likely to defeat the release package.

(e) SECURITY REVIEW.

Before public release of sensitive material, an independent reviewer shall identify readily remediable vulnerabilities, secrets unrelated to continuity, and personal data. The review may delay a planned public release for not more than 90 days, but shall not delay an owner-specific offline unlock that can be delivered safely.

SEC. 507. LIVE-SERVICE WIND-DOWN AND COMMUNITY HOSTING.

(a) WIND-DOWN MODE.

For a live-service product, the seller shall preserve every reasonably separable campaign, creation tool, private session, purchased map, character, item, and accessibility function. The seller may discontinue official events, ranking, matchmaking, moderation, and newly produced content after clear notice.

(b) COMMUNITY HOST OPTION.

If meaningful use requires multiuser server operation and a server component can be released without authorizing access to unpurchased works or creating an unmitigable material risk, the seller shall provide a community-host package. The package may require entitlement verification, truthful unofficial labeling, privacy safeguards, and reasonable rate or abuse controls implemented without seller dependence.

(c) NO CONTINUING OPERATOR STATUS.

After a compliant release, the original seller is not deemed the operator, speaker, publisher, employer, joint venturer, or moderator of an independently run community service solely because it supplied required continuity materials. Ordinary liability for the seller’s own code, misrepresentation, or unlawful conduct remains.

(d) OFFICIAL MARKS AND RANKINGS.

The release need not authorize use of trademarks except nominative reference, impersonation of an official service, or migration of official competitive rankings. It shall not prohibit nonconfusing compatibility statements, preservation, criticism, modding, or private play.

(e) PRESERVATION INSTITUTIONS.

The seller shall furnish a complete preservation package to the Library of Congress or another qualified library, archive, museum, or research institution under access controls that protect unreleased material and personal data while permitting preservation, study, and activation after a lawful trigger.

SEC. 508. SUCCESSORS, ASSET TRANSFERS, AND UPSTREAM LICENSING.

(a) SUCCESSOR DUTY.

A person that acquires substantially all relevant assets, a product line, brand, entitlement ledger, necessary intellectual property, or operational control with actual or constructive notice of outstanding entitlements shall take subject to the continuity duties attributable to those assets.

(b) NO FRAGMENTATION EVASION.

Related transactions shall be considered together. A seller may not place the ledger, server, keys, brand, and revenue rights in separate affiliates or transfers for the purpose or substantial effect of leaving no person able to perform.

(c) UPSTREAM CONTRACTS.

A seller entering or renewing an upstream agreement for a purchased product shall use commercially reasonable efforts to secure a survival, wind-down, owner-use, escrow, replacement, or refund right. Failure to obtain such a right shall be disclosed internally in the continuity inventory and does not shift risk to the owner.

SEC. 509. BANKRUPTCY AND STATUTORY TRUST RULES.

(a) APPLICATION IN A CASE UNDER TITLE 11.

Notwithstanding sections 362, 363, 365, and 541 of title 11, United States Code, and to the full extent of Congress’s power under article I, section 8, clause 4 of the Constitution -

an owner’s digital property, paid stored value held in statutory trust, and personal digital property are not property of the estate merely because the debtor controls the account or server;

continuity escrow material and financial assurance shall be used for their statutory purpose and are not available for general distribution until that purpose is satisfied;

rejection of an executory contract does not revoke a completed consumer entitlement or bar exercise of the contingent continuity license;

a sale free and clear does not extinguish an entitlement protected by this Act, and a purchaser taking relevant assets is subject to section 508;

the automatic stay does not prohibit notice, owner export, preservation, or escrow release authorized by the bankruptcy court or necessary to prevent irreversible loss; and

a consumer retains every greater right available under section 365(n) or other law.

(b) EXPEDITED HEARING.

On request of the Commission, a State or Tribal public enforcer, a representative owner, the escrow agent, or the trustee, the bankruptcy court shall hear a motion concerning imminent continuity loss on an expedited basis.

(c) CONSUMER DEPOSIT CLAIMS.

Nothing in this section reduces priority available under section 507(a)(7) of title 11. The monetary remedy under section 504 constitutes a consumer deposit claim to the extent paid consideration was not earned through durable performance.

SEC. 510. CONFIDENTIALITY, CYBERSECURITY, AND RESPONSIBLE RELEASE.

(a) PROTECTED CUSTODY.

Before a trigger, escrow material shall be encrypted, access-controlled, logged, and separated from ordinary commercial use. An escrow agent may disclose it only for testing, cure, a lawful trigger, court order, or agency examination.

(b) MINIMUM NECESSARY RELEASE.

Release shall be limited to material necessary for owners, successors, community hosts, or preservation institutions. Unrelated trade secrets, keys serving unaffected products, personal data, export-controlled items, and exploitable vulnerabilities shall be redacted, compartmentalized, or delivered to a trusted intermediary where feasible.

(c) NO SECURITY PRETEXT.

A security concern justifies modification of the release method, not abandonment of continuity, unless the person proves no reasonably safe method exists. Cost attributable to an avoidable insecure design does not excuse performance.

(d) RECIPIENT DUTIES.

A recipient of nonpublic escrow material shall use reasonable safeguards, honor entitlement limits, minimize personal data, and disclose a material vulnerability responsibly. Lawful interoperability, repair, research, preservation, and community operation remain protected.

SEC. 511. LEGACY SYSTEMS AND TRANSITION.

(a) CROSS-REFERENCE.

Sections 1601 through 1604 govern phase-in for pre-enactment products, legacy continuity registration, approved alternatives, and technical safe harbors.

(b) CONDITIONS.

An approved legacy alternative shall preserve substantially equivalent value and prioritize products affecting safety, accessibility, housing, transportation, agriculture, education, health, or irreplaceable data. Transition relief does not authorize a new removal, disablement, destruction of a feasible unlock or ledger, or sale made with undisclosed knowledge of imminent failure.

SEC. 512. LIMITS AND ENFORCEMENT.

(a) NO INDEFINITE LABOR MANDATE.

This title does not require indefinite staffing, new expression, moderation, or identical commercial operation. It requires the highest practicable continuity result in section 504.

(b) NO RIGHT TO UNPURCHASED CONTENT.

Continuity need not unlock a work, feature, item, or account not lawfully acquired, or disclose another person’s private data. Temporary technical access used to verify and migrate an entitlement is permitted only to the minimum extent necessary.

(c) ENFORCEMENT.

A violation is enforceable under Title XIV. A court may order preservation, escrow deposit or release, continued minimal service, successor transfer, local unlock, community-host material, migration, replacement, refund, or appointment of a steward.

(d) MASS-EVENT PRESUMPTION.

If an end-of-service event affects 1,000 or more owners and the seller failed to maintain a current verified deposit or required assurance, there is a rebuttable presumption of irreparable harm and entitlement to preliminary preservation relief.

SEC. 601. OWNERSHIP OF PURCHASED HARDWARE CAPABILITIES.

(a) INCLUDED CAPABILITY.

Subject to section 207, a capability is part of purchased hardware if, at acquisition, it was enabled, separately paid for, advertised or demonstrated as included, ordinarily expected for the product category, or physically incorporated and necessary for a core function. Implementation through firmware, a remote flag, a cryptographic key, or software does not make the capability a continuing service.

(b) PROHIBITED POST-SALE CONTROL.

A seller may not remotely disable, meter, throttle, time-limit, or place behind a recurring charge an included capability; condition it on an unrelated account or subscription; or charge to reactivate it after repair, transfer, replacement of a component, or expiration of a bundled service.

(c) GENUINELY NEW OR REMOTE SERVICE.

A seller may charge for a new, severable capability first developed after sale or for continuing remote labor, connectivity, storage, content, or computation if -

the charge and dependency are disclosed before the owner elects the service;

declining or canceling does not reduce the purchased baseline;

no local capability is deliberately disabled to manufacture the need for the service; and

owner-generated data and settings remain exportable.

(d) DORMANT COMPONENTS.

A component physically present but neither sold, enabled, advertised, nor reasonably required may support an optional later feature. Before sale, the seller shall disclose any material hardware whose lawful ordinary use is technically blocked and the price or conditions for activation. The seller may not misrepresent the owner’s repair or interoperability rights in that component.

SEC. 602. LOCAL CONTROL AND OFFLINE OPERATION OF CONNECTED PRODUCTS.

(a) LOCAL CORE FUNCTIONS.

A connected product shall permit its core functions to operate through physical controls, an owner-controlled local network, or direct device communication without avoidable routing through the seller. Door access, lighting, temperature, alarms, appliance operation, mobility, assistive functions, and other safety- or habitability-related functions shall have a reasonably usable local or offline mode.

(b) OWNER ADMINISTRATION.

The owner shall receive, without charge -

a documented local interface or open protocol sufficient to invoke core functions and retrieve owner-generated data;

administrator credentials or a secure process to generate them;

local backup and restoration of configurations, rules, and automations; and

a method to substitute a compatible controller without seller permission.

(c) CLOUD-DEPENDENT COMPUTATION.

If a function inherently requires remote resources not reasonably reproducible on the product, the seller shall state that fact and the minimum service period before sale, provide an interoperable substitute endpoint or migration interface where feasible, and comply with Title V at end of service.

(d) DISASTER AND OUTAGE MODE.

A product affecting entry, safety, health, mobility, food preservation, water, heat, or essential communications shall enter a safe owner-usable mode during an account, Internet, cloud, or company outage. A fail-secure design may protect persons or premises but shall include an owner-controlled emergency procedure consistent with applicable safety law.

(e) PRIVACY.

Local operation may not be conditioned on transmission of content, precise location, biometric data, household activity, or another sensitive category unnecessary to the requested function.

SEC. 603. ADVERTISING AND COMMERCIAL MESSAGES IN PURCHASED PRODUCTS.

(a) APPLICATION OF SECTION 208.

Section 208 applies to tangible products, firmware, operating systems, lock screens, displays, notifications, voice assistants, control applications, replacement interfaces, and paid digital goods.

(b) PURCHASE-DATE BASELINE.

No seller may add advertising to a purchased product or materially increase its frequency, intrusiveness, data use, or resource consumption after sale without affirmative express consent. Consent may be withdrawn as easily as given, and withdrawal shall restore the prior ad-free or lower-advertising baseline without a new fee.

(c) PREPAID SUBSCRIPTION TERM.

Advertising may not be added during a prepaid subscription term unless the consumer expressly elected a plan that disclosed the change before the term began. A renewal into an advertising-supported plan requires the renewed consent under section 305.

(d) NO ESSENTIAL-SURFACE ADVERTISING.

An advertisement may not delay, obscure, imitate, or occupy a control necessary for safety, accessibility, repair, cancellation, privacy, local operation, or account-property access. An owner may permanently disable optional promotional notifications with a single control.

SEC. 604. OBJECTIVE DURABILITY AND MINIMUM SUPPORT PERIODS.

(a) DUTY.

A covered product shall retain its core functions, ordinary performance, repairability, and represented compatibility throughout its reasonable useful life, with ordinary maintenance and replaceable wear items. The seller shall provide the support, security, parts, documentation, and continuity necessary to meet that duty.

(b) STATUTORY FALLBACK PERIODS.

Unless a longer period applies under subsection (a), another law, or an express representation, the minimum period measured from the last date a new unit of the model is offered for retail sale by the seller or an authorized seller is -

5 years for a covered product with an initial retail price below $100;

7 years for consumer electronics, connected products, software-dependent products, and covered products priced from $100 through $999.99;

10 years for a major appliance, assistive device, durable household system, heating or cooling equipment, and a covered product priced at $1,000 or more;

15 years for a motor vehicle, agricultural or construction equipment, solar or energy-storage equipment, and equipment permanently installed in a building; and

for a purchased digital work whose content does not physically wear out, durable access without an arbitrary expiration, with compatibility and security support for not less than 7 years followed by compliant continuity under Title V.

The price thresholds are adjusted under section 1608.

(c) INDIVIDUAL UNIT FLOOR.

Regardless of the last-sale date, a unit is entitled to not less than the applicable period beginning on its first good-faith retail purchase as new. A replacement furnished under warranty receives the greater of the remaining original period or 2 years.

(d) COMPONENT AND BATTERY STANDARDS.

The Commission, consulting relevant agencies, shall set measurable category standards for cycle life, capacity retention, repair cycles, common failures, and availability. Until superseded, an integral rechargeable battery shall retain 80 percent of rated capacity after 800 full equivalent cycles under standardized ordinary conditions or be replaceable on fair and reasonable terms.

(e) AGENCY AUTHORITY LIMITED UPWARD.

An agency may extend a period, create a more protective performance standard, or identify an equivalent category. It may shorten a period only for a narrowly defined perishable, single-use, sterile, or safety-limited product upon clear and convincing technical evidence, after notice and comment, and never below an express representation.

SEC. 605. SECURITY, FUNCTIONAL, AND COMPATIBILITY SUPPORT.

(a) SECURITY SUPPORT.

Throughout the applicable period, the seller shall provide without charge fixes for material vulnerabilities in seller-supplied software and shall disclose a support-until date before sale. A seller may not end updates while requiring continued Internet exposure.

(b) FUNCTIONAL SUPPORT.

The seller shall correct a defect or server-side change that materially prevents a core function; maintain activation and recovery; provide supported accessibility and data-export functions; and avoid changing a controlled interface in a manner that strands its own product.

(c) NO FORCED UPGRADE PURCHASE.

Support may not be conditioned on buying a new model, unrelated service, higher plan, proprietary consumable, or paid feature. A seller may charge a fair and reasonable amount for labor outside warranty, but not for a necessary security fix, entitlement restoration, or correction of seller-caused incompatibility.

(d) END OF PERIOD.

At expiration of support, the seller shall give 180 days’ notice and comply with Title V. Expiration authorizes cessation of new support, not remote disablement or artificial degradation.

SEC. 606. REMOTE ACTIONS, CHANGE LOGS, AND OWNER CONTROL.

(a) AUTHORIZATION.

A remote action materially affecting a core function requires the owner’s affirmative express consent unless it is a necessary security update within section 609, a requested support action, or a particularized lawful order.

(b) CHANGE LOG.

Before installation, the seller shall disclose in plain language the functions added, removed, or changed; material interoperability and privacy effects; approximate resource effect; whether rollback is available; and the security basis for any mandatory action. The owner may retain the notice and technical version identifier.

(c) NO SILENT DEGRADATION.

Failure to describe a material effect creates a rebuttable presumption that the owner did not consent. An emergency patch may precede full notice by not more than 72 hours.

(d) OWNER SETTINGS.

An update shall preserve owner settings, default choices, local automations, accessibility configurations, third-party interoperability, and privacy selections unless technically impossible, in which case the seller shall offer backup, restoration, and a specific explanation.

SEC. 607. SOFTWARE VERSION CHOICE, DEFERRAL, REINSTALLATION, AND ROLLBACK.

(a) OWNER CHOICE.

During the support period, an owner may defer a noncritical update, reinstall a lawfully acquired version, and roll back an update that removes or impairs a function. The seller shall maintain signed installers, firmware images, drivers, dependencies, and ordinary activation for the current version and at least the two most recent materially distinct supported versions.

(b) LONG-TERM COMPATIBLE BUILD.

If a mandatory architectural change would strand compatible hardware, assistive technology, files, or a material workflow, the seller shall maintain a security-corrected prior branch or provide an interoperable migration and the owner’s elected remedy under section 407(e).

(c) SIDELOADING AND RECOVERY.

The seller shall not block installation of a lawfully acquired compatible version or recovery image solely because it was obtained from the owner’s backup, an independent repairer, a successor, or a verified repository. Reasonable signature verification is permitted if the owner can install an alternative through a documented, informed procedure.

(d) VULNERABLE VERSION.

Under section 609, a seller may isolate a specifically vulnerable version from a seller-operated network, but shall preserve safe local use, export, rollback, and installation of a corrected compatible build where feasible. A warning alone shall be used when it adequately addresses the risk.

SEC. 608. ARTIFICIAL DEGRADATION AND PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE.

(a) PROHIBITION.

No seller may intentionally or recklessly shorten useful life or induce replacement, repair, upgrade, subscription, or consumable purchases through artificial degradation.

(b) COVERED CONDUCT.

Prohibited conduct includes undisclosed reduction of processor speed, battery capacity, charging rate, image or audio quality, print yield, sensor accuracy, energy output, storage, network compatibility, repairability, parts recognition, or a core function; an expiration counter unrelated to physical condition; and a final update or certificate decision reasonably calculated to brick a product.

(c) CONDITION-BASED MANAGEMENT.

A product may manage performance to prevent imminent damage or injury only under section 609. It shall disclose the measured condition, effect, and available repair; distinguish a temporary protective state from permanent loss; and restore ordinary performance after the cause is corrected.

(d) NO DESIGNING AROUND REPAIR.

Repair or replacement of a battery, storage device, sensor, or other component shall restore the performance available before that component deteriorated, absent a demonstrated independent defect.

SEC. 609. MEASURABLE SAFETY, CYBERSECURITY, PRIVACY, AND LEGAL EXCEPTIONS.

(a) REQUIRED SHOWING.

A restriction under this title is lawful only if the seller proves by a preponderance of specific technical evidence that -

an identified condition presents a material probability of physical injury, unauthorized access, substantial data loss, emissions violation, network disruption, or other legally cognizable harm;

the restriction materially reduces that probability;

its scope, affected functions, persons, and duration are no greater than necessary;

a warning, patch, isolation, rate limit, local-only mode, repair, or other less restrictive measure would not adequately address the risk;

the restriction is not motivated primarily by revenue, uniformity, control of repair, collection of data, or suppression of competition; and

restoration, repair, replacement, export, or refund is provided where the protected baseline cannot safely continue.

(b) QUANTIFICATION AND REVIEW.

The seller shall quantify the likelihood and severity to the extent reasonably possible, identify the test or authoritative standard used, preserve the assessment, and review a continuing restriction at least every 90 days. Mere failure to use a seller-authorized part, service, network, or version is not evidence of risk.

(c) EMERGENCY ACTION.

An immediate measure may be taken for a newly discovered critical threat, but notice shall issue within 24 hours, a compatible cure shall be supplied as soon as practicable, and a measure continuing beyond 30 days requires independent technical review.

(d) SECTOR LAW.

A specific Federal safety, emissions, medical-device, aviation, food, drug, communications, or transportation requirement controls to the extent of direct conflict. The seller shall preserve every ownership right not inconsistent with that requirement.

SEC. 610. DURABILITY DISCLOSURES, TESTING, AND RECORDS.

(a) OWNERSHIP-DURABILITY LABEL.

Before sale, the seller shall disclose the support-until, security-until, parts-until, and cloud-dependency dates; battery replaceability; required consumables; material repair restrictions permitted by law; and end-of-service method. A date may not be replaced with “while supported,” “as available,” or similar discretion.

(b) SUBSTANTIATION.

A durability or “lifetime” representation shall be supported by testing reasonably reflecting ordinary use, foreseeable maintenance, environmental conditions, and known failure modes. The Commission may specify uniform tests and publish comparative results under section 1506.

(c) RECORDS.

The seller shall retain design-life assumptions, failure and return data, update and degradation logs, parts and support decisions, safety assessments, and notices for the support period plus 6 years.

(d) MATERIAL FAILURE TREND.

If a seller learns that a common defect is reasonably likely to disable a core function materially earlier than represented, it shall notify owners, stop a misleading durability claim, and offer correction, repair, replacement, or an appropriate useful-life extension.

SEC. 611. REMEDIES AND CONSTRUCTION.

(a) OWNER ELECTION.

For a violation of this title, an owner may elect restoration, removal of the remote restriction, a compatible prior version, free repair, replacement, useful-life extension, or refund, together with relief under Title XIV.

(b) CONTINUING DUTY.

Each day a seller knowingly leaves a remote disablement or artificial degradation in effect after notice is a continuing violation, except during a documented cure reasonably necessary under section 609.

(c) NO DUTY TO CREATE A NEW PRODUCT.

Durability requires maintenance of the purchased baseline and reasonable correction of defects; it does not require a seller to add a capability never sold or to support every future third-party platform. A seller controlling a compatibility break remains responsible under sections 407 and 605.

SEC. 701. RIGHT TO DIAGNOSE, MAINTAIN, REPAIR, AND MODIFY.

(a) GENERAL RIGHT.

An owner may diagnose, maintain, repair, refurbish, improve, and modify a covered product, and may select an independent repair provider, without losing ownership, a core function, lawful support, or an unaffected warranty.

(b) PROHIBITED RESTRICTIONS.

A seller may not use a contract, access control, design, adhesive, unavailable fastener, software lock, account requirement, parts embargo, misleading warning, intellectual-property threat, or remote action to prevent or materially burden lawful repair when a reasonably secure, less restrictive method is available.

(c) NO DUTY TO WARRANT MODIFICATION.

A seller need not warrant an independent repair or modification or damage proved to have been caused by it. The seller remains responsible for an unrelated defect and may not disable the product merely because it detects independent work.

(d) LAWFUL-USE LIMIT.

This title does not authorize theft, unauthorized access to another person’s data, infringement, defeat of legally required emissions or safety controls, or operation contrary to a specific Federal or State safety law.

SEC. 702. PARTS, TOOLS, DOCUMENTATION, DIAGNOSTICS, AND SOFTWARE.

(a) REQUIRED AVAILABILITY.

Throughout the period in section 604, a manufacturer shall make available to owners and independent repair providers, at the same time and on terms no less favorable than to an authorized provider -

service manuals, schematics, board views, wiring and parts diagrams, error-code definitions, service bulletins, and known-defect information;

diagnostic, reset, calibration, pairing, provisioning, firmware-installation, and recovery tools;

replacement parts, assemblies, batteries, connectors, fasteners, and specialized physical tools;

firmware, drivers, installers, security fixes, and prior versions required by section 607;

account-independent activation and post-repair validation; and

training or certification offered generally to authorized providers.

(b) TERMS AND FORMAT.

Documentation required for ordinary repair shall be available without charge in a searchable, accessible, open format. A physical part, specialized tool, or genuinely individualized service may be offered on fair and reasonable terms. The price may not include expected lost revenue from repair, consumables, subscriptions, or replacement sales.

(c) PROMPT DELIVERY.

Electronic material shall be supplied immediately; an in-stock part within 5 business days by ordinary shipping; and another part within a reasonable stated period. A manufacturer shall not favor its own repair operation in allocation during a shortage except for a documented recall or immediate safety need.

(d) END OF MANUFACTURE.

If a required part is no longer manufactured, the seller shall provide its specifications, dimensions, materials, firmware interface, and lawful fabrication information sufficient for an independent person to produce a compatible part, subject to protection of information unnecessary for compatibility or safety.

(e) NO MANDATORY COMMERCIAL ACCOUNT.

An owner may obtain materials without joining a commercial network, surrendering unrelated data, accepting advertising, or purchasing a subscription. Reasonable authentication may protect export-controlled, security-sensitive, or safety-critical information.

SEC. 703. SERIALIZATION, PARTS PAIRING, ACTIVATION, AND WARNINGS.

(a) PROHIBITED EFFECTS.

A manufacturer may not use a serial number, cryptographic signature, parts pairing, activation server, firmware whitelist, or calibration control to -

prevent installation or full functional use of an otherwise compatible part;

reduce performance, quality, capacity, safety features, or interoperability because of part origin;

prevent restoration of data, settings, biometrics, or ordinary calibration after repair;

require payment or manufacturer approval for a pairing function supplied without charge to an authorized provider; or

display a false, misleading, repeated, or nondismissible warning.

(b) OWNER-ACCESSIBLE PAIRING.

A necessary pairing, serialization, or calibration process shall be available to the owner through an offline or reasonably reliable tool without charge beyond a fair and reasonable price for specialized hardware.

(c) PERMITTED RECORD AND WARNING.

A product may maintain a repair-history record and display one accurate, neutral, dismissible notice that a part’s origin or specification could not be verified. The notice shall not imply danger, warranty loss, or inferior performance without specific evidence and shall not recur after acknowledgment unless the condition changes.

(d) NARROW EXCEPTION.

Pairing may protect a standalone biometric-authentication secret, theft-locked device, sterile single-use component, dose-critical medical calibration, or comparably specific interest only if the manufacturer satisfies section 609 and supplies an owner-accessible safe repair path.

SEC. 704. THIRD-PARTY, REFILLED, REMANUFACTURED, AND RECYCLED CONSUMABLES.

(a) RIGHT OF USE.

An owner may use a compatible third-party, refilled, remanufactured, or recycled consumable. A seller may not reject it through firmware, a chip, an account, an update, a service refusal, a recurring charge, or a warranty term merely because of origin.

(b) TRUTHFUL INFORMATION.

A product may report objectively measured condition, remaining quantity, compatibility, or a specific safety issue. It may not display a premature empty condition, reduce yield or quality, transmit purchase behavior unnecessarily, or claim that only an original-brand consumable is safe without substantiation.

(c) CAUSATION.

The seller bears the burden of proving that a particular consumable caused the particular damage or nonconformity for which coverage or service is denied. A generalized association or nonmatching identifier is insufficient.

(d) INTEROPERABILITY INFORMATION.

Electrical, mechanical, chemical, digital, and communications specifications reasonably necessary to make a safe compatible consumable shall be available on fair and reasonable terms. A seller may protect a formula or process not necessary to compatibility.

SEC. 705. WARRANTY PROTECTION AND MAGNUSON-MOSS AMENDMENT.

(a) CAUSATION-BASED WARRANTY RULE.

A warranty may exclude the reasonable cost of correcting harm proved by a preponderance of evidence to have been caused by unauthorized alteration, negligent repair, or an incompatible part. It may not be voided in whole, shortened, or denied for unrelated components because an owner opened, inspected, maintained, repaired, modified, or used a third-party provider, part, software, or consumable.

(b) NO WARRANTY-VOID LABEL.

A seal, label, interface message, or term stating or implying that opening or independent repair automatically voids a warranty is unlawful. A seller shall correct such a representation at point of sale and in service material.

(c) AMENDMENT.

Section 102(c) of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty - Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act (15 U.S.C. 2302(c)) is amended -

by inserting after “corporate name” the following: “, whether the condition is imposed by contract, technological protection measure, parts-pairing process, software control, or denial of a core function”; and

by adding at the end the following:

“A warrantor denying coverage based on an article, service, repair, modification, software, or consumable not supplied by the warrantor bears the burden of proving that it caused the defect or damage for which coverage is denied. Coverage for an unrelated defect or component may not be denied.”.

(d) COMMISSION WAIVER.

A waiver under the final clause of section 102(c) shall be product- and condition-specific, time-limited, based on clear and convincing public evidence that no less restrictive safe method exists, and reviewed at least every 2 years. A waiver may not protect a revenue model or authorized-service monopoly.

SEC. 706. SECTOR SAFETY; NO CATEGORICAL LOOPHOLE.

(a) SPECIFIC LAW CONTROLS.

A specific, applicable safety, emissions, cybersecurity, privacy, sanitation, licensing, or professional-practice requirement controls to the extent an identified repair would otherwise violate it. No product category is wholly excluded from this title merely because some repairs in that category are regulated.

(b) SECURE ACCESS.

For a safety-critical function, a manufacturer may require role-based credentials, logging, or validation available to qualified independent providers on fair and reasonable terms and tailored under section 609.

(c) MOTOR VEHICLES AND MOBILE EQUIPMENT.

Nothing authorizes defeat of emissions, odometer, or required safety systems. Manufacturers shall provide diagnostics, parts, calibration, secure gateway access, and validation needed to restore compliance.

(d) MEDICAL AND ASSISTIVE DEVICES.

Repair shall preserve required quality records, calibration, sterility, reporting, and patient-data protection. Eligible hospitals, technicians, owners, and independent providers shall receive material necessary for lawful maintenance.

(e) AVIATION, RAIL, MARITIME, AND HAZARDOUS SYSTEMS.

Required certification, inspection, and return-to-service rules remain in force. The manufacturer shall provide regulated repair stations and other persons eligible under governing law nondiscriminatory access to necessary material.

(f) FIREARMS, CONTROLLED ITEMS, AND SECURITY EQUIPMENT.

Nothing authorizes manufacture, conversion, possession, or modification prohibited by law, defeat of a lawful access restriction protecting another person, or disclosure of a security vulnerability unnecessary for repair. Lawful ordinary maintenance remains protected.

SEC. 707. CYBERSECURITY, PRIVACY, AND REPAIR DATA.

(a) DATA MINIMIZATION.

A repair tool shall access only data reasonably necessary for diagnosis and repair. An independent provider shall obtain owner authorization, protect accessed data, and delete or return it when no longer needed, subject to lawful recordkeeping.

(b) SECURITY RESEARCH AND DISCLOSURE.

Good-faith diagnosis and security testing on lawfully accessed property, and responsible disclosure of a vulnerability, shall not be treated as evidence of malicious intent. Section 811 supplies the applicable Federal computer-access safe harbor.

(c) MANUFACTURER REMOTE ACCESS.

A manufacturer may not activate a camera, microphone, precise location, file scan, or remote-control session for repair without specific contemporaneous consent, except as authorized by a warrant or emergency law.

(d) CREDENTIAL REVOCATION.

A credential may be revoked for demonstrated misuse. Revocation shall be individualized, noticed, appealable, and shall not bar the owner from using another qualified provider.

SEC. 708. INDEPENDENT PROVIDER DUTIES AND NONDISCRIMINATION.

(a) ORDINARY RESPONSIBILITY.

An independent provider remains responsible for negligence, fraud, deceptive practice, its own product liability, privacy, licensing, environmental law, and valid safety standards.

(b) NO DEEMED AGENCY.

A manufacturer is not deemed to authorize, supervise, or warrant an independent provider solely because it supplies material required by this title.

(c) NONDISCRIMINATION.

A manufacturer may not deny repair material or warranty service because an owner or provider competes with or criticizes it, organizes collectively, or uses a lawful aftermarket part.

(d) PROVENANCE.

A person selling a part or repair shall not falsely claim original-manufacturer status or conceal a material safety defect. Truthful “compatible with,” “repaired,” and “remanufactured” statements are protected.

SEC. 709. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, ENVIRONMENT, AND COMPETITION.

(a) MINIMUM NECESSARY INFORMATION.

No source code, formula, design, or trade secret need be disclosed beyond what is necessary for diagnosis, compatibility, calibration, security, or repair. Confidential delivery requires a specific material risk.

(b) COPYRIGHT AND ACCESS CONTROLS.

Title VIII governs circumvention and tools used for lawful repair. A contract may not re-create a restriction that Congress has displaced.

(c) ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE.

Repair materials shall identify lawful handling of hazardous substances and waste. Environmental rules may regulate safe handling but may not reserve all repair to the manufacturer without the showing in section 609.

(d) ANTITRUST SAVINGS.

Compliance is not immunity under antitrust law. Coordinated limits on independent parts, service, protocols, or consumables remain subject to that law.

SEC. 710. RECORDS, BURDENS, AND REMEDIES.

(a) RECORDS.

A manufacturer shall retain repair-material versions, prices, authorized-provider terms, pairing denials, warranty denials, safety assessments, and part-availability records for the period in section 604 plus 6 years.

(b) BURDEN.

The person imposing a restriction bears the burden to establish a tailored exception. Refusal to supply the assessment or similarly situated authorized-provider material creates a rebuttable presumption of discrimination.

(c) OWNER REMEDIES.

A court may order tool or information access, pairing or activation, removal of a misleading warning, warranty restoration, free correction, replacement, extension of support, and relief under Title XIV. Each unjustified refusal after a complete request is a separate violation.

SEC. 711. PATENT EXHAUSTION, PERMISSIBLE REPAIR, AND RECONSTRUCTION.

(a) EXHAUSTION AFTER AUTHORIZED DISPOSITION.

As a rule of decision in an action arising under title 35, United States Code, an authorized sale or other authorized disposition of a patented article, whether occurring in the United States or outside the United States, exhausts all patent rights to control the use, maintenance, repair, importation, resale, lending, transfer, or other disposition of that article. Exhaustion applies notwithstanding a notice, label, license characterization, field-of-use statement, single-use designation, or other post-sale restriction, and extends to a patent claim substantially embodied in the article.

(b) PERMISSIBLE REPAIR.

An owner, repair provider, parts supplier, or other person acting with the owner’s authorization does not make a patented article within the meaning of section 271(a) of title 35 solely by -

diagnosing, maintaining, cleaning, calibrating, refurbishing, or restoring the sold article;

replacing a worn, damaged, depleted, defective, obsolete, or interoperable unpatented component;

refilling, replacing, remanufacturing, or using a compatible unpatented consumable;

combining the sold article with a compatible part, accessory, software program, or controller; or

restoring the article to its purchased capacity, performance, or expected useful life.

Repair remains permissible when it requires disassembly, replacement of more than one component, firmware or calibration work, or a process the patentee reserved to itself. A post-sale restriction or design choice does not convert repair into reconstruction.

(c) RECONSTRUCTION LIMIT.

This section does not authorize manufacture of a materially new patented article after the sold article, considered as a whole, has become spent and lost its practical identity. The patentee bears the burden of proving impermissible reconstruction. A court shall consider the article’s retained identity, remaining components, expected maintenance, modularity, useful life, customary repair, and economic substance. Replacement of an ordinarily replaceable component or consumable is not reconstruction merely because the patentee made the component difficult to replace or labeled the article single-use.

(d) SEPARATELY PATENTED REPLACEMENT ARTICLE.

Nothing in this section authorizes unauthorized manufacture of a replacement component or consumable that itself practices every limitation of a valid, unexhausted patent claim, or limits liability for infringement independent of ownership, use, or repair of the sold article.

(e) CONTRACT AND OTHER LAW.

A restriction unenforceable under this section may not be enforced through patent law. Any independent contract claim remains subject to sections 106 through 109 and other applicable consumer, competition, and property law. This section does not narrow any greater exhaustion, repair, implied-license, estoppel, or noninfringement rule.

SEC. 801. RIGHT TO TRANSFER, RESELL, GIVE, AND LEND.

(a) GENERAL RULE.

An owner may sell, give, lend, devise, or otherwise transfer a covered product and its associated durable entitlement, paid capability, transferable warranty, necessary firmware, and ordinary documentation. A nonnegotiated prohibition on transfer is void except to the minimum extent necessary to protect another person’s privacy, a valid security interest, or an entitlement honestly sold as personal and time-limited under Title II.

(b) DEVICE AND DIGITAL COMPONENTS.

Transfer of tangible property includes the practical ability to reset it, remove the transferor’s personal data, establish the transferee as owner, obtain security updates, activate purchased capabilities, and use compatible parts and services without a transfer or reactivation fee.

(c) NO RESALE DEGRADATION.

A seller may not reduce functionality, warranty coverage that runs with the product, support, local control, interoperability, or repair access because a product is used, refurbished, gifted, inherited, or purchased outside an authorized channel. A warranty tied by law or promise to the original purchaser need not be enlarged, but every product-wide support duty remains.

(d) REASONABLE ANTI-FRAUD MEASURES.

A seller may verify that a transferor holds the entitlement and may prevent simultaneous excess copies, but the method shall be free, prompt, privacy-preserving, and available without consent of the copyright owner or seller. A manual review shall be completed within 5 business days.

(e) SECURITY INTERESTS.

This section does not defeat a lawfully perfected security interest or authorize transfer of stolen property. A creditor’s remedy remains subject to Titles IX through XII.

SEC. 802. VERIFIED DIGITAL TRANSFER AND TEMPORARY LENDING.

(a) ONE-OWNER, ONE-USABLE-COPY RULE.

An owner may transfer a particular lawfully acquired digital copy or entitlement if, at completion, the transferor does not knowingly retain a simultaneously usable copy beyond a temporary technical reproduction necessary to complete, verify, or recover from failure of the transfer.

(b) REQUIRED TRANSFER METHOD.

A seller or platform maintaining the entitlement ledger shall provide an open, documented transfer method that -

verifies the entitlement without unnecessary identity data;

moves associated keys, lawful add-ons, accessibility settings, and transferable metadata;

disables or deletes the transferor’s usable entitlement only after the transferee’s copy is confirmed;

restores the transferor automatically if transfer fails;

supplies both parties a durable transfer receipt; and

does not require repurchase, a new subscription, or surrender of unrelated property.

(c) INDEPENDENT METHOD.

If the seller no longer operates or fails to provide a compliant method, an owner may use a reasonable verified forward-and-delete tool, escrow, or successor system consistent with sections 807 through 811.

(d) LENDING.

An owner may lend a digital copy for a reasonable stated period if the owner’s usable access is suspended during the loan and automatically restored at its end. Ordinary household use on owner-controlled devices, library lending authorized by law, and accessibility assistance are not prohibited by this subsection.

(e) NO ROYALTY OR VETO.

No post-sale royalty, permission, transfer fee, or platform veto may be imposed for a transfer protected by this section. A person may charge for an optional value-added escrow or marketplace service separately selected by the parties.

SEC. 803. INHERITANCE, FIDUCIARIES, AND LEGACY ACCESS.

(a) PASSAGE AT DEATH.

A durable digital property interest, device entitlement, paid stored value, domain or account asset lawfully transferable under other law, and personal digital property pass to the estate, beneficiary, trust, or other successor under applicable succession law. Death does not convert purchased property to a revocable license.

(b) LEGACY TOOL.

A seller shall provide a readily accessible method to designate and update a legacy contact or beneficiary and to export a record of the designation. The tool facilitates, but does not invalidate, a later controlling will, trust, court order, or other instrument recognized under State law.

(c) FIDUCIARY PROCESS.

On presentation of reasonable evidence of authority, the seller shall preserve the account, stop future subscription charges, provide an entitlement and stored-value inventory, and permit transfer or export within 30 days. It may request only evidence reasonably necessary and may not require disclosure of credentials, a waiver of rights, or a transfer fee.

(d) COMMUNICATIONS AND THIRD-PARTY PRIVACY.

Access to the content of communications remains subject to the Stored Communications Act, the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act as enacted by applicable State law, testamentary direction, and the rights of other persons. Where content cannot lawfully be disclosed, the seller shall still disclose the catalog, property inventory, receipts, and noncontent records it may lawfully provide.

(e) SUBSCRIPTIONS.

Future recurring charges stop at death unless an authorized successor affirmatively elects continuation. Ending the service does not impair purchased goods, exports, or a refund of the unused prepaid period.

SEC. 804. EXPORT OF PERSONAL DIGITAL PROPERTY AND ACCOUNT VALUE.

(a) CONTINUOUS EXPORT.

During account operation and the preservation period in sections 310 and 409, a seller shall permit export, without charge, of personal digital property, including user-created files, messages lawfully disclosable, saves, annotations, playlists, settings, automations, device histories, transaction and repair records, entitlement and warranty manifests, paid-value balances, accessibility configurations, and metadata necessary to preserve organization and use.

(b) USABLE FORM.

Export shall be complete, searchable, structured, commonly used, machine-readable, accessible, and, where technically feasible, directly transferable to a service designated by the owner. Proprietary formatting may accompany but not replace an open format. Ordinary exports shall begin immediately and complete within 7 days; unusually large or complex exports within 30 days.

(c) COPYRIGHTED CONTENT.

For a purchased third-party work, the seller shall export a lawful usable copy when authorized or an encrypted entitlement, receipt, metadata record, and reacquisition token enabling restoration or transfer without repurchase. This section does not authorize public redistribution.

(d) VERIFICATION.

The export shall include a manifest, checksums or equivalent integrity information, omitted categories and legal grounds, and instructions sufficient to import the data. The owner may request correction and one replacement export.

(e) NO EXIT PENALTY.

A seller may not lower quality, delay export, impose an exit fee, delete before completion, demand renewal, or deny export because the owner selected a competitor, complained, disputed a charge, or faces an account restriction.

SEC. 805. INTEROPERABILITY AND PROTECTION AGAINST ECOSYSTEM LOCK-IN.

(a) INTEROPERABLE FUNCTIONS.

A seller controlling a material interface necessary to use, repair, transfer, or migrate purchased property shall provide owners and their authorized providers a documented, stable, nondiscriminatory interface on fair and reasonable terms.

(b) SWITCHING.

An owner may change a controller, cloud provider, application store, default service, repair provider, data host, accessory, or compatible platform without loss of the purchased baseline. The incumbent shall provide direct transfer, reasonable overlap to verify migration, and deletion at the owner’s direction after completion.

(c) NONDISCRIMINATION.

The seller may not degrade latency, resolution, battery use, security, discoverability, API scope, data freshness, or support because an owner interoperates with a competitor. Substantially equivalent uses shall receive substantially equivalent technical treatment.

(d) OPEN STANDARDS AND CHANGE NOTICE.

Where a widely adopted open standard can provide the function with materially equivalent safety and performance, the seller shall support it or document why it cannot. A breaking interface change requires at least 180 days’ notice, a testing environment, migration documentation, and continued prior-interface support during transition.

(e) LIMITS.

No person must expose another user’s private data, a credential enabling unauthorized access, or a trade secret beyond the minimum necessary for interoperability. A rate limit or security control is lawful only if objectively applied and justified under section 609.

SEC. 806. PRIVACY, SECURITY, AND TRANSFER RECORDS.

(a) OWNER DIRECTION.

Export, transfer, lending, and fiduciary tools shall use data minimization, encryption appropriate to risk, and clear owner authorization. A seller may not use transferred data for advertising or an unrelated purpose without separate consent.

(b) OTHER PERSONS.

Contacts, shared files, communications, social connections, and collaborative records shall be exported or transferred only to the extent consistent with the rights and reasonable expectations of other persons. The seller shall preserve relational metadata where lawful without revealing content it may not disclose.

(c) RECORDS.

The seller shall retain transfer and export receipts for 6 years, but shall not retain the exported content longer than otherwise necessary. A recipient may prove ownership without making the transfer history publicly traceable.

SEC. 807. AMENDMENT TO SECTION 109 OF TITLE 17.

Section 109 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(f) Digital Transfer. -

“(1) Subject to subsection (b) with respect to a rental, lease, or lending for purposes of direct or indirect commercial advantage, and notwithstanding section 106(1) and (3), the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title and embodied in digital form may, without authority of the copyright owner, make or authorize reproductions reasonably necessary to sell, give, lend, devise, or otherwise dispose of that copy or phonorecord, if -

“(A) no additional usable copy is knowingly retained after transfer, except a transitory copy reasonably necessary to complete or reverse a failed transfer;

“(B) reasonable measures appropriate to the work and transaction prevent simultaneous excess use; and

“(C) the transfer does not constitute public distribution of additional copies.

“(2) The owner may make and retain a reasonable number of copies necessary for personal archival backup, restoration, accessibility, format or device migration, entitlement verification, or disaster recovery, if the copies remain under the owner’s control, are not made available to the public, and do not enable use materially exceeding the ordinary personal use acquired. The owner may also make technical copies necessary to effect a time-limited noncommercial loan during which the owner’s usable access is suspended. Upon a disposition under paragraph (1), the owner shall delete or render unusable every retained copy except a transitory copy permitted by paragraph (1)(A).

“(3) A person treated as owner of a copy or durable entitlement under the Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026 is an owner for purposes of this section, notwithstanding a nonnegotiated term characterizing the transaction as a license.

“(4) A contract term contrary to this subsection is unenforceable. This subsection does not convey copyright title or authorize a public performance or display not otherwise permitted.”.

SEC. 808. AMENDMENT TO SECTION 117 OF TITLE 17.

Section 117 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(e) Ownership-Preserving Copies and Adaptations. - Notwithstanding section 106, an owner or a person authorized by the owner may make or authorize a copy or adaptation of a computer program reasonably necessary for diagnosis, maintenance, repair, security testing, accessibility, interoperability, backup, restoration, migration, verified transfer, local operation, or continuity after cessation of a material service, if the activity does not constitute infringement other than the reproduction or adaptation authorized by this subsection. A copy created solely under this subsection may be used only for the lawful purpose and may be transferred with the underlying machine, copy, or entitlement or destroyed when no longer needed. A person treated as an owner under the Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026 is an owner for purposes of this section.”.

SEC. 809. PERMANENT AMENDMENT TO SECTION 1201 OF TITLE 17.

Section 1201 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(l) Lawful Ownership, Repair, Interoperability, and Continuity. -

“(1) Notwithstanding subsections (a)(1), (a)(2), and (b), it is not a violation of this section for an owner, or a person acting with the owner’s authorization, to circumvent a technological measure for diagnosis, maintenance, repair, replacement of a part, security research, accessibility, interoperability, backup, restoration, version choice, local control, verified transfer, preservation, or continued use after an authentication or service dependency ends, if the person lawfully possesses or controls the affected copy, account, or product and does not otherwise infringe copyright.

“(2) It is not a violation of this section to make, import, offer, provide, or traffic in a technology, product, service, device, component, or information reasonably designed or marketed for a purpose in paragraph (1), if the provider uses reasonable measures against knowing infringement and does not market it for infringement.

“(3) Commercial competition with the copyright owner, availability of an authorized service, breach of a nonnegotiated restriction displaced by law, or the possibility of dual use does not alone defeat this subsection.

“(4) This subsection is permanent and independent of the rulemaking under subsection (a)(1)(C). It does not authorize access to another person’s private data, distribution of an unpurchased work, or circumvention principally to infringe.”.

SEC. 810. AMENDMENT TO SECTION 301 OF TITLE 17.

Section 301 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(g) Nothing in this section preempts or limits a Federal, State, local, Tribal, or common-law right or remedy governing ownership classification, sale or transfer of a particular copy, contract, warranty, repair, interoperability, durability, product functionality, account access, personal data, stored value, deception, competition, or an end-of-service remedy, where the claim includes an element, duty, or protected interest qualitatively different from the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright. The rights and remedies under the Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026 are not preempted.”.

SEC. 811. NARROW COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT SAFE HARBOR.

Section 1030 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(k) A person does not violate this section solely by accessing a computer, device, account, program, or data that the person owns or is authorized by the owner to access, for the good-faith purpose of diagnosis, maintenance, repair, security research, accessibility, interoperability, backup, export, transfer, local control, or continuity protected by the Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026, if the person -

“(1) does not intentionally obtain another person’s nonpublic data, commit fraud, extort, or cause material harm to another computer or person;

“(2) accesses a third-party computer only with authorization or through a publicly available interface;

“(3) uses reasonable care to avoid and mitigate harm; and

“(4) does not obtain another person’s trade secret or private data except with authorization or as otherwise permitted by law.

“A contractual restriction alone does not establish intent to defraud or criminal authorization boundaries for conduct within this subsection.”.

SEC. 812. CONSTRUCTION, IMPLEMENTATION, AND ENFORCEMENT.

(a) NO PIRACY OR INVASION OF PRIVACY.

This title protects disposition and use of lawfully acquired property; it does not authorize retention of excess usable copies, public redistribution, theft of service, access to another person’s account, or disclosure prohibited by privacy law.

(b) TECHNICAL STANDARDS.

The Commission and National Institute of Standards and Technology may recognize open transfer, lending, export, entitlement, and interoperability methods that implement this title. A standard may not require universal tracking, a centralized identity system, or approval by the original seller.

(c) FAILURE TO PROVIDE A TOOL.

Absence of a seller-provided method does not extinguish the underlying right. An owner or provider using a reasonable method in good faith remains protected by sections 807 through 811.

(d) ENFORCEMENT.

Violations of sections 801 through 806 are enforceable under Title XIV. The amendments in sections 807 through 811 create defenses and limitations under the statutes amended and do not eliminate any greater exception, limitation, defense, or remedy.

(e) EFFECTIVE DATE OF AMENDMENTS.

Sections 807 through 811 take effect 18 months after enactment and apply to conduct occurring on or after that date.

The notes below are explanatory and are not operative statutory text.

Digital sale and copyright. Section 109 presently protects disposition of a particular copy; section 117 protects certain owner-made program copies; and section 1201 separately regulates circumvention. Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc., 910 F.3d 649 (2d Cir. 2018), held that a digital transfer involving creation of a new phonorecord did not fall within existing first sale. Sources: 17 U.S.C. § 109, § 117, § 1201, and ReDigi.

Abandoned games. The current triennial exemption covers limited restoration of lawfully acquired complete games after external authentication support ends but does not itself compel release or broadly immunize tools. 37 C.F.R. § 201.40(b)(19)(19)).

Platform removal examples. Ubisoft states that The Crew became inaccessible after its March 31, 2024 server shutdown; Funimation states that eligible physical-media digital copies did not transfer after its shutdown. Ubisoft; Funimation.

Repair and tying. Magnuson-Moss restricts conditioning warranty coverage on branded articles or services, and the FTC found scant record support for broad repair restrictions. 15 U.S.C. § 2302(c); FTC, *Nixing the Fix*.

Pairing and support disclosure. Oregon prohibits specified pairing practices for covered equipment, while an FTC survey found most examined smart-product webpages did not disclose software-support duration. Oregon ORS 646A.850; FTC survey.

Bankruptcy and fiduciaries. Section 365(n) permits retention of specified intellectual-property license rights but does not require continued server operation. RUFADAA addresses fiduciary access but does not generally convert a nontransferable license into inheritable property. 11 U.S.C. § 365(n); Uniform Law Commission RUFADAA.

Patent exhaustion and repair. The Supreme Court held that an authorized sale exhausts patent rights notwithstanding post-sale restrictions and that exhaustion reaches method claims substantially embodied in a sold article. *Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc.*; *Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc.*.

SEC. 901. DEFINITIONS.

In this title:

(1) BONA FIDE CASH PRICE.

The term “bona fide cash price” means the price at which a merchant, in the ordinary course of business and without a financing contingency, actually offers the same property for immediate payment, excluding a price established primarily to reduce a disclosed finance charge. If the merchant does not make a material number of cash sales of substantially identical property, the term means the lower of the merchant's stated cash price or the median retail price, adjusted for condition and locality, shown by a commercially reliable and independently verifiable source designated under section 909.

(2) CREDITOR.

The term “creditor” includes a seller, lessor, assignee, servicer, secured party, rent-to-own provider, lease-to-own provider, title lender, and any person that directly or indirectly obtains, services, collects, or enforces an obligation arising from an ownership-directed transaction.

(3) ESSENTIAL PROPERTY.

The term “essential property” means -

a motor vehicle regularly used to travel to employment, education, medical care, child care, or obtain necessities, if the household has no reasonably available substitute;

a mobility, medical, accessibility, or communications device reasonably necessary for health, safety, disability access, or emergency communication;

a refrigerator, stove, heating or cooling appliance, water system, bed, or other household good reasonably necessary for health or habitability;

tools, equipment, livestock, or a computer reasonably necessary for the principal livelihood of the consumer or a dependent; and

personal records, identification, prescription drugs, child-restraint equipment, and other personal effects that cannot lawfully be subject to a security interest or whose loss would create a material risk to health, safety, employment, housing, or access to public benefits.

(4) OWNERSHIP-DIRECTED TRANSACTION.

In general. The term “ownership-directed transaction” means a covered transaction, however denominated, under which a consumer obtains possession or use of personal property and -

ownership will or may vest after one or more payments;

a portion of any payment is represented as accumulating equity, reducing an acquisition price, or counting toward ownership;

the consumer has an option to acquire ownership for nominal or declining additional consideration;

the sum of scheduled payments equals or exceeds the bona fide cash price and the transaction is marketed, structured, or reasonably likely to culminate in ownership;

the consumer is liable, other than for intentional damage or ordinary rental charges, for a substantial portion of the property's value upon return; or

the economic substance of the transaction is a deferred-payment sale.

Presumptions. A transaction is presumed ownership-directed if -

the ownership option price after scheduled payments is not more than 20 percent of the bona fide cash price;

the agreement automatically renews and payments for 12 months would exceed 60 percent of the bona fide cash price;

the merchant uses “rent-to-own,” “lease-to-own,” “path to ownership,” “same as cash,” “ownership plan,” or substantially similar language; or

property is selected from ordinary retail inventory and the consumer bears risk of loss substantially equivalent to that of an owner.

True short-term rental. The term does not include a true short-term rental that has a fixed term of not more than 90 days, does not renew automatically, provides no ownership option or equity representation, and charges no amount after timely return other than for proven damage beyond ordinary wear.

(5) REMOTE DISABLING TECHNOLOGY.

The term “remote disabling technology” means hardware or software capable of materially impairing the operation, starting, access, safety, communications, or core function of property from a remote location, including a starter-interrupt device, kill switch, account command, network command, or conditional activation credential. The term does not include a consumer-controlled anti-theft function or a narrowly tailored safety recall measure that complies with section 905.

SEC. 902. OWNERSHIP-DIRECTED TRANSACTIONS TREATED AS CREDIT SALES.

(a) ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE CONTROLS.

An ownership-directed transaction is a credit sale and an extension of consumer credit for purposes of the Truth in Lending Act (15 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (15 U.S.C. 1691 et seq.), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (12 U.S.C. 5481 et seq.), and this Act, without regard to -

whether the agreement permits termination by the consumer;

whether a State law denominates the transaction a lease or rental;

whether the merchant characterizes a finance charge as rent, a service fee, a membership fee, a waiver fee, or another amount; or

whether title is stated to remain with the merchant until the last payment.

(b) ASSIGNEE AND PLATFORM RESPONSIBILITY.

An assignee takes an ownership-directed obligation subject to all claims and defenses of the consumer arising from the transaction, notwithstanding a holder-in-due-course doctrine or contractual waiver. A remedy under this Act is not limited by the amount-of-recovery proviso in the notice prescribed under part 433 of title 16, Code of Federal Regulations.

A marketplace or platform that controls the merchant's listing, payment, disabling technology, or repossession process and receives a fee based on the transaction is jointly liable for a violation the platform knew or, through reasonable monitoring, should have known and could have prevented.

(c) NO ELECTION OF LESSER LAW.

Compliance with a consumer-lease or rental-purchase statute does not excuse compliance with this title. A creditor may offer a true rental, but may not use cancellability to strip a transaction directed toward ownership of credit-sale protections.

SEC. 903. SHOPPING-STAGE AND CONTRACT DISCLOSURES.

(a) PRICE TAG AND ADVERTISEMENT.

Whenever an advertisement, product page, catalog, or display states a periodic payment for an ownership-directed transaction, the creditor shall disclose with equal prominence -

the bona fide cash price and the basis used to determine that price;

the amount and frequency of each payment;

the exact number and total amount of payments required to acquire ownership;

the annual percentage rate and total finance charge, calculated under the Truth in Lending Act using the bona fide cash price;

whether the property is new, used, refurbished, or previously rented;

the earliest date and amount at which the consumer may exercise an early-purchase option;

each mandatory fee, insurance product, loss-damage waiver, and late charge; and

the presence and function of any location-tracking or remote disabling technology.

(b) WRITTEN AGREEMENT AND PAYMENT LEDGER.

Before the consumer becomes obligated, the creditor shall provide a durable copy of an agreement containing the information in subsection (a), a plain-language description of cure, reinstatement, return, repossession, and warranty rights, and an amortization-style ledger showing for each payment the amount credited to principal, finance charge, taxes, and other charges. After each payment, the creditor shall provide an updated ledger without charge.

(c) PROHIBITION ON MANIPULATED CASH PRICES.

It is unlawful to state or use a cash price that materially exceeds the price regularly charged by unaffiliated retailers for substantially identical property of comparable condition, unless the creditor substantiates a difference attributable to delivery, installation, customization, or another itemized service actually supplied.

(d) LANGUAGES; ACCESSIBILITY.

The disclosures shall be provided in each language used to market or negotiate the transaction and in an accessible format. An oral translation does not substitute for a durable written translation.

SEC. 904. PRICE, EQUITY, EARLY PURCHASE, CURE, AND REINSTATEMENT.

(a) ALL-IN RATE LIMIT.

The total cost of credit in an ownership-directed transaction may not exceed an annual percentage rate of 36 percent, calculated to include every payment, fee, insurance premium, loss-damage waiver, membership charge, and ancillary product imposed as a condition of obtaining or retaining the property.

A lower maximum rate or total-cost limit under applicable State, local, or Tribal law controls.

For household goods, the total of payments required for ownership may not exceed twice the lower of the bona fide cash price or the median retail price determined under section 901(1).

(b) EQUITY CREDIT.

Each payment shall vest in the consumer an equitable ownership interest equal to the amount by which the payment exceeds the reasonable market rental value for the period of actual use, less a finance charge permitted by subsection (a).

A creditor may not cancel, reset, or forfeit vested equity because of a late payment, renewal, replacement agreement, or temporary surrender.

When a consumer returns property after vesting equity equal to at least 25 percent of the bona fide cash price, the creditor shall, at the consumer's election -

hold the property for reinstatement for 90 days without an additional finance charge, charging only reasonable storage cost disclosed in advance;

transfer the vested equity to substantially similar replacement property; or

sell the property in a commercially reasonable manner and pay the consumer the net proceeds exceeding the unpaid acquisition balance and reasonable sale cost.

(c) EARLY PURCHASE.

At any time, the consumer may acquire title by paying the unpaid portion of the bona fide cash price, accrued finance charge through the payment date, and no prepayment penalty. If the creditor advertises a more favorable “same-as-cash” or early-purchase formula, that formula governs.

(d) RIGHT TO CURE.

A creditor may not declare default or exercise a possessory remedy for a payment default until the creditor gives at least 30 days' written notice stating the amount necessary to cure, an itemized payment history, available hardship options, and the date after which action may occur.

A consumer may cure by tendering amounts past due, excluding accelerated future payments and unlawful charges.

A creditor shall offer one extension of not fewer than 60 days in any 12-month period upon documented unemployment, medical emergency, declared disaster, domestic violence, military orders, death of a household wage earner, or interruption of public benefits. Interest may accrue at the contract rate, but no late fee, default rate, or extension fee may be imposed.

(e) REINSTATEMENT AFTER TAKING.

Until the earlier of sale or 45 days after repossession, a consumer may reinstate by paying the lawful past-due amount and reasonable direct repossession cost. For essential property, the period is 90 days. The creditor shall promptly restore possession and all digital functionality.

SEC. 905. REMOTE DISABLING AND LOCATION TRACKING.

(a) GENERAL PROHIBITIONS.

A creditor may not use remote disabling technology -

to disable a medical, accessibility, emergency-communications, heating, cooling, water, refrigeration, or life-safety function;

while a vehicle or machine is moving, occupied in an unsafe place, or reasonably needed to address an emergency;

while a payment, default, identity, or servicing error is the subject of a timely good-faith dispute;

during a cure, hardship, reinstatement, bankruptcy-stay, or Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protection period;

based solely on a geofence, automated score, or failure of a creditor-controlled server; or

as a collection threat before the creditor has a present lawful right to possession.

(b) MOTOR VEHICLES AND ESSENTIAL PROPERTY.

Remote disabling of a motor vehicle or other essential property constitutes repossession and is prohibited without a judicial order issued after notice and an opportunity to be heard, except that no order is required for a consumer-initiated voluntary surrender or a consumer-controlled theft-recovery command.

(c) SAFETY AND EMERGENCY OVERRIDE.

Any remote disabling technology installed in a motor vehicle shall -

permit the consumer to initiate at least four emergency overrides in a 12-month period, each allowing not fewer than 48 hours of normal operation;

give an audible and visual warning at least 10 days and again 48 hours before a scheduled disabling;

default to continued operation upon loss of communications or ambiguity; and

maintain steering, braking, lights, climate control, emergency calling, and safe relocation capability under all conditions.

(d) DATA MINIMIZATION.

Location data collected for collateral protection may be accessed only after a lawful default and only to locate property for a court-authorized repossession or respond to theft. It may not be sold, used for advertising, disclosed to a data broker, or retained more than 30 days after the obligation is satisfied. A creditor shall maintain an access log available to the consumer.

(e) SAFETY RECALLS.

Nothing in this section prevents a manufacturer from implementing a narrowly tailored measure reasonably necessary to prevent an imminent and substantial risk of death or serious physical injury, if the manufacturer provides the owner a no-cost repair or equivalent safe functionality at the earliest practicable time and does not use the measure to collect a debt or compel a subscription.

SEC. 906. UNIFORM MINIMUM REPOSSESSION PROTECTIONS.

(a) VERIFIED RIGHT TO POSSESSION.

Before directing or conducting a repossession, a creditor and repossession agent shall independently verify from current records -

the creditor's enforceable security interest and complete chain of assignment;

a presently uncured material default;

the accuracy and application of every payment, extension, discharge, settlement, and bankruptcy notice;

expiration of all required notices and cure periods; and

the absence of an unresolved error notice or legal restraint.

Reliance on an automated assignment or stale status code without the verification required by this subsection is not reasonable.

(b) JUDICIAL PROCESS FOR ESSENTIAL PROPERTY.

Essential property may be taken only under a judicial replevin or equivalent order issued on evidence satisfying subsection (a). The court shall consider whether a temporary payment plan, bond proportionate to the consumer's equity, restricted use, or other less harmful measure will adequately protect the creditor.

(c) SELF-HELP FOR OTHER PROPERTY.

For property that is not essential property, self-help repossession is permitted only if authorized by State law, preceded by the notice and cure required by section 904, and completed without entry into a dwelling or locked area, deception, impersonation, threat, confrontation, surveillance of a sensitive location, or breach of the peace. A consumer's contemporaneous objection terminates the self-help authority.

(d) PERSONAL EFFECTS AND DATA.

A creditor or agent shall inventory, preserve, and return personal effects found in repossessed property without conditioning return on payment.

The consumer shall have not fewer than 60 days after written inventory notice to retrieve personal effects at a reasonably accessible location and during reasonable hours. Prescription drugs, identification, child-restraint equipment, medical devices, and work credentials shall be made available within 24 hours.

Before sale, the creditor shall provide the consumer a no-cost means to export personal data and shall then securely erase personal data from the property. Erasure shall not delete evidence necessary to resolve a dispute, which shall be preserved under access controls.

(e) DISPOSITION AND SURPLUS.

At least 21 days before disposition, the creditor shall disclose the proposed method, time, place, minimum bid if any, independent valuation, itemized obligation, and reinstatement amount.

Disposition shall be public, commercially reasonable, and reasonably advertised to the ordinary retail or wholesale market for the property. The consumer may attend, bid, and designate another bidder.

The creditor shall remit any surplus, with a closing statement, not later than 14 days after disposition.

A deficiency may be collected only if the creditor proves strict compliance with this title and that the net sale price was not less than 75 percent of a reliable wholesale-market valuation, unless a court finds after an evidentiary hearing that extraordinary condition or market circumstances made the price reasonable.

(f) LIABILITY FOR AGENTS.

A creditor is strictly liable for the acts and omissions of a repossession agent, forwarder, data vendor, disabling-technology provider, auctioneer, and other contractor used to exercise a possessory remedy. Contractual indemnity does not limit the consumer's rights.

(g) SERVICEMEMBERS.

The protections of this title are cumulative of chapter 50 of title 50, United States Code. A creditor shall query the Department of Defense military-status database or obtain equivalent reliable verification before taking property, and uncertainty shall be resolved in favor of continued possession until status is determined.

SEC. 907. WARRANTIES, TITLE, AND SATISFACTION.

(a) WARRANTY CONTINUITY.

Warranty coverage runs from original delivery, may not be shortened because property is financed or previously rented, and transfers with title. A creditor that supplies used property shall disclose and warrant its material condition for at least 90 days, except for a specific defect conspicuously disclosed and separately acknowledged.

(b) PROMPT TITLE.

Not later than 10 business days after satisfaction or early purchase, the creditor shall deliver clean title, release every lien within its control, deactivate creditor-controlled tracking and disabling technology, and provide any credential necessary for full local use. A creditor that fails to do so owes statutory damages of $100 per day in addition to actual damages.

SEC. 908. BANKRUPTCY OWNERSHIP FLOOR.

(a) AUTOMATIC-STAY CLARIFICATION.

For purposes of section 362(a)(3) and (6) of title 11, United States Code, remotely disabling property, revoking a necessary credential, changing an access code, or causing a third party to deny a core function is an act to obtain possession of, exercise control over, or collect a claim against property of the estate or the debtor.

(b) MINIMUM NECESSITIES EXEMPTION.

Section 522 of title 11, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(r) National minimum ownership necessities. -

“(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b)(2) or any State election under subsection (b), an individual debtor may exempt, in addition to any greater exemption otherwise applicable -

“(A) one motor vehicle up to $15,000 in aggregate equity;

“(B) household furnishings, household goods, appliances, books, animals, crops, and musical instruments held primarily for personal, family, or household use up to $25,000 in aggregate value;

“(C) implements, professional books, computers, and tools of the trade of the debtor or a dependent up to $15,000 in aggregate value;

“(D) professionally prescribed health aids, mobility devices, accessibility equipment, and property reasonably necessary for medical care, without monetary limitation;

“(E) personal digital property, family records, educational materials, and lawfully acquired digital goods held for noncommercial use, without monetary limitation; and

“(F) vested equity in an ownership-directed transaction to the same extent as the underlying property.

“(2) The dollar amounts in paragraph (1) shall be adjusted at the same time and in the same manner as amounts under subsection (d). No adjustment may reduce an amount.

“(3) A contractual waiver of this subsection is unenforceable.”.

(c) OWNERSHIP-DIRECTED AGREEMENTS.

An ownership-directed transaction shall be treated according to its economic substance as a secured claim or sale, and not as an unexpired lease under section 365 of title 11, United States Code.

Vested equity under section 904 is property of the estate. A debtor may cure and reinstate the agreement through a plan under chapter 11, 12, or 13 of title 11.

A creditor may not condition restoration of functionality after cure on payment of a discharged debt or a reaffirmation agreement.

(d) CONSUMER PROPERTY CLAIM PRIORITY.

Section 507(a)(7) of title 11, United States Code, is amended by inserting after “deposit” the following: “or vested payment made under an ownership-directed transaction,”.

SEC. 909. RULEMAKING; MODEL FORMS; DATABASES.

(a) JOINT RULES.

Not later than 18 months after enactment, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, in consultation with the Federal Trade Commission, shall issue rules and model forms to carry out this title. The rules shall -

prescribe a method for determining bona fide cash price and effective annual percentage rate that prevents manipulation;

identify reliable retail and wholesale valuation sources for major product categories;

establish standardized ownership, payment-ledger, default, cure, repossession, and disposition notices;

require creditors and repossession agents to maintain auditable records for 7 years; and

establish a public database of enforcement orders and anonymized aggregate data on repossessions, remote disabling, reinstatements, sale prices, deficiencies, and wrongful takings.

(b) OBJECTIVE WAIVERS.

The Bureau may by rule adjust a percentage or time period in sections 903 through 906 only upon substantial evidence that the adjustment increases consumer ownership and prevents evasion without materially reducing a protection. The Bureau may not exempt a product category solely because it is technologically complex or customarily financed under another label.

SEC. 910. ENFORCEMENT; RELATION TO OTHER LAW.

(a) COVERED LAW.

This title is a Federal consumer financial law for purposes of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 and an Act referred to in section 5(a)(1) of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Federal agency responsibility is allocated under section 1401(f). A violation is enforceable under Title XIV of this Act, including by State attorneys general and private persons.

(b) STATE-LAW FLOOR.

This title does not annul, alter, or affect a State, local, or Tribal law except to the extent that compliance with both is impossible. A law providing a lower rate, longer cure, broader reinstatement, judicial-repossession requirement, greater exemption, or other additional protection is not inconsistent.

(c) UCC AND SECURITY INTERESTS.

Except as expressly provided, this title does not determine attachment, perfection, or priority under applicable commercial law. A remedy available under article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code or similar law may be exercised only in compliance with the procedural and substantive floor established by this title.

SEC. 1001. DEFINITIONS AND SCOPE.

(a) DEFINITIONS.

In this title:

Contract for deed. The term “contract for deed” means an executory agreement, installment land contract, bond for deed, lease-option, lease-purchase agreement, or substantially similar transaction under which a natural person obtains possession of a dwelling or residential real property, makes payments toward acquisition, and the seller retains legal title or a power to terminate pending payment.

First-generation homebuyer. The term “first-generation homebuyer” means a first-time homebuyer who -

has not, and whose parent or legal guardian has not, owned a principal residence in the United States during the homebuyer's lifetime; or

before age 18 was in foster care, was orphaned, or was under guardianship by a person other than a parent who owned a home.

A homebuyer is not disqualified because a parent held only heirs property, a fractional interest that did not provide possession, property lost through foreclosure or displacement before the homebuyer reached age 18, or a dwelling that was not safe or habitable.

Manufactured housing community. The term has the meaning given in section 123(a) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5323(a)), as added by Public Law 119-101, and includes land under common ownership on which 5 or more manufactured homes are sited.

Resident association. The term means a democratic organization open to all households in a manufactured housing community, in which each occupied homesite has one vote and residents control at least two-thirds of the governing body.

Residential heirs property. The term means residential or agricultural real property held by 2 or more relatives as tenants in common or under another unresolved succession arrangement, for which title or beneficial ownership derives from a common ancestor and is not governed by a binding agreement that supplies substantially equivalent partition safeguards.

Secretary. The term means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, except where another official is expressly identified.

(b) COVERED HOUSING NEXUS.

Sections 1002, 1006, and 1007 apply to a transaction involving a dwelling or creditor in or affecting interstate commerce. Sections 1003 through 1005 apply to Federal property, federally backed or federally related mortgage loans, recipients of Federal housing or community-development financial assistance, and participating jurisdictions as specified in those sections.

SEC. 1002. CONTRACTS FOR DEED ARE MORTGAGES IN SUBSTANCE.

(a) TREATMENT AS CREDIT AND SECURITY.

A contract for deed is a residential mortgage transaction and consumer credit transaction secured by the consumer's principal dwelling for purposes of the Truth in Lending Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010.

The seller is a creditor and mortgage servicer without regard to the number of transactions made in a year. The buyer holds equitable title from execution, and the seller's retained title constitutes solely a security interest.

A lease or option shall be severed and treated according to substance if payments, improvements, risk allocation, marketing, or the option price show a reasonable expectation of ownership.

(b) CONDITIONS BEFORE OBLIGATION.

Not fewer than 7 business days before execution, the seller shall provide -

the disclosures required for a closed-end residential mortgage loan, including annual percentage rate, finance charge, total of payments, balloon payment, taxes, insurance, and late charges;

a title report identifying every lien, tax, restriction, and person with an interest in the property;

an independent appraisal and inspection, the right to obtain the buyer's own inspection, and all legally required hazard, condition, and lead disclosures;

proof that the seller can convey marketable title upon performance and that any superior mortgage permits the transaction;

a schedule allocating every payment among principal, interest, escrow, and fees; and

notice that the buyer may cancel without cost until 3 business days after receiving all required information.

(c) RECORDING; ESCROW; HABITABILITY.

Within 10 days after execution, the seller shall record the agreement or a memorandum sufficient to provide constructive notice of the buyer's equitable title. Failure to record makes the seller liable for all loss caused by a later lien or transfer and bars enforcement until cured.

Taxes, insurance, and superior-lien payments collected from the buyer shall be held in an escrow account, timely applied, and reported annually. Commingling is prohibited.

The seller shall deliver and maintain the dwelling in compliance with applicable health, safety, building, and habitability law. The buyer may repair and deduct after reasonable notice when the seller fails to cure a material condition.

(d) DEFAULT AND TERMINATION.

A seller may not cancel, forfeit, evict, or retain accumulated equity because of default. The sole remedy against the dwelling is judicial foreclosure under the law applicable to a first-lien residential mortgage, with not fewer than 120 days' delinquency, a 45-day notice and right to cure, good-faith loss mitigation, and credit for every payment and verified improvement.

A balloon payment due within 5 years is prohibited unless the transaction satisfies qualified-mortgage ability-to-repay standards and the buyer receives an unconditional right to extend amortization for at least 15 additional years at the lesser of the contract rate or a reasonable market rate.

Any provision purporting to treat payments as rent upon default, waive redemption, authorize self-help eviction, or permit confession of judgment is void.

(e) EXISTING AGREEMENTS.

This section applies to an enforcement, assignment, acceleration, or termination occurring after its effective date. A preexisting seller shall provide a payment ledger and record a memorandum before initiating enforcement.

SEC. 1003. MANUFACTURED-HOME COMMUNITY PURCHASE OPPORTUNITY.

(a) NOTICE.

An owner of a manufactured housing community shall give residents, the resident association, the Secretary, and the appropriate State housing agency at least 180 days' written notice before -

marketing, listing, or entering an agreement to sell or transfer a controlling interest in the community;

converting the land to another use or closing the community; or

refinancing or restructuring ownership in a manner reasonably likely to cause closure or displacement.

The notice shall disclose the proposed price and material terms, existing debt, 3 years of operating statements, capital needs, environmental reports, utility systems, rent roll with personal information removed, and a contact for due diligence.

(b) RESIDENT OFFER AND MATCHING RIGHT.

During the first 120 days after complete notice, the owner may not accept an offer other than from the resident association or its nonprofit, cooperative, Tribal, public, or community-land-trust designee.

A resident designee that submits a letter of intent within that period has 90 additional days to obtain financing and conduct diligence.

If the owner thereafter proposes to accept a third-party offer on price or material terms more favorable than those last offered to residents, residents have 30 days to match those terms and 90 days to close.

The owner shall negotiate in good faith but is not required to accept less than a bona fide arm's-length price. The owner may accept a resident offer using federally supported subordinate financing or a reasonable closing period without violating a duty to another bidder.

(c) CONTINUOUS STANDSTILL; COMPLETE NOTICE.

From the first event requiring notice under subsection (a) until every applicable notice, exclusive-offer, diligence, financing, matching, and closing period under this section expires, the owner may not close or consummate a covered transaction with another person; convey, option, encumber, or remove a material community asset outside the ordinary course; cause or permit a closure, conversion, mass displacement, or material deterioration; or alter price, debt, rent, fees, occupancy, management, or transaction structure for the purpose or reasonably foreseeable effect of defeating resident acquisition.

A period does not begin until complete and accurate notice and every material item required by subsection (a) have been delivered in a reasonably usable form. A material correction restarts the affected period unless the resident association knowingly waives the restart after advice of independent counsel.

A resident association may agree in writing to shorten a period after receiving complete notice and independent counsel, but no owner, lender, manager, lease, community rule, or preexisting contract may require or induce a prospective waiver.

A court may toll or extend a period for nondisclosure, delay, interference, force majeure, or financing review and may enjoin a threatened transaction. A knowing transferee that had actual or constructive notice takes subject to this section; a nonqualifying closing is voidable under subsection (e).

(d) ANTI-EVASION AND EXCEPTIONS.

The duties apply to a sale of assets, equity, beneficial ownership, or a series of related transfers. They do not apply to a transfer to an heir, spouse, existing co-owner, resident-controlled entity, or nonprofit preserving affordability; a taking by eminent domain; or a temporary transfer to a lender through foreclosure, if any later disposition by the lender complies.

(e) TENANT PROTECTION.

It is unlawful to retaliate, increase rent or fees for the purpose of impairing an acquisition, refuse recognition of a resident association, require disclosure of how an individual voted, or interfere with organizing, financing, inspection, or counsel. A transfer made in violation is voidable by the resident association for 2 years, and a court may grant specific performance.

(f) FEDERAL PROGRAM CONDITION AND DIRECT NEXUS.

Compliance is a condition of any Federal loan, insurance, guarantee, grant, tax-credit allocation, or other housing assistance materially benefiting the community after enactment. The substantive duties also apply to an owner that owns communities in more than one State, uses interstate financing or management, or offers homes or homesites through interstate communications.

SEC. 1004. HEIRS PROPERTY AND FAMILY TITLE SECURITY.

(a) HEIRS PROPERTY OWNERSHIP AND TITLE-CLEARING PROGRAM.

The Secretary, jointly with the Secretary of Agriculture, shall award grants and low-interest revolving loans to States, Tribes, legal-aid organizations, community development financial institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, Tribal colleges and universities, and nonprofit organizations to -

conduct probate, genealogical, survey, quiet-title, tax, estate-planning, and recording work;

finance purchase or consolidation of fractional interests without displacing an occupant;

prevent tax foreclosure, repair code violations, and obtain insurance;

create accessible succession documents and title registries while protecting privacy; and

provide mediation and representation in partition proceedings.

(b) UNIFORM PARTITION INCENTIVES.

For grants under this section, the Secretary shall give priority to a jurisdiction that has adopted and effectively implements the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act or a law providing at least -

verified notice to every reasonably ascertainable cotenant;

independent appraisal;

a meaningful right of non-petitioning cotenants to buy the petitioner's interest;

preference for partition in kind, considering sentimental, ancestral, cultural, and livelihood value;

if sale is necessary, an open-market sale by a disinterested broker rather than a distressed courthouse auction; and

safeguards against a speculator acquiring a fractional interest for the predominant purpose of forcing a below-market sale.

(c) FEDERALLY ASSISTED PROPERTY.

A partition, foreclosure, or disposition of residential heirs property subject to a current Federal lien, loan, guarantee, or grant shall comply with the protections in subsection (b). A Federal agency shall accept alternative documentation reasonably establishing ownership for disaster, housing, conservation, and farm assistance when formal probate is incomplete, subject to fraud controls.

(d) COORDINATION WITH PUBLIC LAW 119-101.

The programs in this section implement, and do not replace or delay, the residential-heirs-property study required by section 804(d) of Public Law 119-101. The Comptroller General's findings shall be used to refine grant criteria, but no eligible assistance shall be withheld pending the study.

SEC. 1005. FAIR TAX-FORECLOSURE PROCESS AND SURPLUS.

(a) FEDERAL SALES.

In a Federal tax-lien or other governmental sale of a principal residence, the United States shall -

use personal, mailed, posted, and reasonably available electronic notice in plain language, with language access, to the owner, occupants, heirs reasonably ascertainable from public records, mortgagees, and persons who requested notice;

offer an affordable payment plan of at least 12 months and a hardship deferral for an owner-occupant who is elderly, disabled, experiencing a declared disaster, or below 80 percent of area median income;

permit redemption until confirmation of sale and judicial review of debt, notice, and procedure;

obtain an independent valuation, expose the property to the market for a commercially reasonable period, and use a reserve price of at least 70 percent of appraised fair market value unless a court approves a lower amount after finding an earlier properly marketed offering failed;

return to the former owner all proceeds exceeding taxes, interest at a nonpunitive rate, and reasonable itemized sale cost, with interest, within 30 days; and

never presume abandonment of surplus because the owner failed to file a separate claim.

(b) PARTICIPATING JURISDICTIONS.

As a clearly stated condition on new Federal housing-preservation, community-development, and tax-administration assistance accepted more than 2 fiscal years after enactment, a State or political subdivision shall provide protections no less protective than subsection (a) for a tax sale of an owner-occupied residence. The Secretary shall offer technical assistance and may approve an equivalent procedure that preserves notice, cure, a fair sale, and automatic return of surplus.

(c) CONSTITUTIONAL FLOOR NOT LIMITED.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit rights under the Fifth, Eighth, or Fourteenth Amendment. Consistent with Tyler v. Hennepin County and Pung v. Isabella County, the statutory protections in this section exceed, and do not purport to redefine, the minimum measure of just compensation.

(d) NONCOERCION; SEVERABILITY.

A jurisdiction may decline a future award identified in subsection (b) without loss of unrelated Federal funds or amounts obligated before the condition was announced. A court shall sever any application found insufficiently related to a Federal program while preserving subsection (a) and each valid grant condition.

SEC. 1006. VALUATION INTEGRITY AND RECONSIDERATION.

(a) CONSUMER RIGHT.

For any consumer credit transaction secured by a dwelling, the creditor shall maintain a free, timely, and independent reconsideration-of-value procedure. Before a final adverse action based materially on valuation, the creditor shall -

deliver the appraisal and automated-valuation inputs promptly;

permit the applicant to identify factual errors, omitted improvements, inappropriate comparables, discriminatory assumptions, or material market information;

have a qualified reviewer who did not select or supervise the original appraiser issue a reasoned written decision; and

obtain a second valuation when a material error or substantial unexplained departure from credible market evidence is shown.

(b) OBJECTIVE VALUATION RULES.

An appraiser, appraisal-management company, automated-valuation provider, or creditor may not select or adjust comparables based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, disability, age, source of lawful income, or neighborhood demographic composition of an applicant or occupant. Quality-control models shall be tested for material error and unlawful differential outcomes, with methods and aggregate results reported to regulators subject to privacy protection.

(c) APPRAISER INDEPENDENCE AND ANTI-RETALIATION.

No person may coerce a target value, suppress a good-faith complaint, blacklist an appraiser for refusing bias, or charge the consumer for a required correction. An adverse action following a reconsideration request shall identify the valuation grounds with specificity.

(d) COORDINATION.

This section expands the reconsideration procedure required for federally backed mortgage loans by section 704 of Public Law 119-101 to other dwelling-secured consumer transactions. It does not alter that Act's appraisal-education, modernization, database-feasibility, or agency-reporting provisions.

SEC. 1007. FORECLOSURE AUTHORITY, DOCUMENTATION, AND LOSS MITIGATION.

(a) DOCUMENTED AUTHORITY.

A person may not commence or continue foreclosure of a consumer's principal dwelling unless the person possesses and provides -

a complete chain of assignments and the legal authority to enforce the note and security instrument;

an itemized life-of-loan payment history and payoff calculation;

admissible records supporting default, prepared by a person with knowledge of the record system; and

certification that all required notices, servicing transfers, error investigations, and loss-mitigation duties have been completed.

(b) NO ROBO-SIGNING OR DUAL TRACKING.

A false, unverified, mass-signed, or materially incomplete affidavit is a violation as to each affected borrower. While a complete loss-mitigation application or timely appeal is pending, no foreclosure referral, sale, eviction, or motion for judgment may proceed.

(c) NOTICE, MEDIATION, AND CURE.

Before filing, a servicer shall give at least 45 days' notice, offer a single point of contact, evaluate available affordable modifications and non-foreclosure alternatives, and participate in mediation if requested. A foreclosure sale may not occur before the loan is more than 120 days delinquent or during a pending timely cure.

(d) REMEDY.

Failure to prove authority or strict compliance requires dismissal without prejudice and restoration of fees charged because of the defective action. A knowing false filing permits actual damages, statutory damages, fee shifting, and referral for perjury or fraud; no foreclosure judgment may rest on harmless-error treatment of missing authority.

SEC. 1008. OWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY FUND.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT AND AUTHORIZATION.

There is established in the Treasury an Ownership Opportunity Fund. There are authorized to be appropriated for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2036 -

$6,000,000,000 for means-tested first-generation homebuyer downpayment, closing-cost, interest-rate, and rehabilitation assistance;

$2,000,000,000 for acquisition, capitalization, stewardship, and predevelopment by community land trusts, limited-equity cooperatives, shared-equity programs, and mission-driven nonprofit developers;

$2,000,000,000 for resident acquisition and improvement of manufactured housing communities under sections 1003 and 123 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974;

$1,000,000,000 for heirs-property and title-clearing activities under section 1004; and

$1,000,000,000 for foreclosure prevention, housing counseling, legal assistance, and tax-sale cure.

(b) FIRST-GENERATION ASSISTANCE.

Assistance under subsection (a)(1) may equal the lesser of $50,000, 20 percent of acquisition and necessary rehabilitation cost, or the amount needed for sustainable financing. Eligibility shall generally be limited to households at or below 120 percent of area median income, or 150 percent in a high-cost area, with priority by need. Assistance shall be forgivable ratably over 5 years of principal-residence occupancy, with no recapture for death, disability, military orders, domestic violence, disaster, or transfer to an eligible heir.

(c) ANTI-INFLATION AND STEWARDSHIP.

Recipients shall use independent valuation, conflict-of-interest rules, homebuyer counseling, quality inspection, and price monitoring to prevent a seller or intermediary from capturing assistance through inflated prices or fees. Shared-equity formulas shall provide the resident a fair, transparent share of appreciation and credit for approved improvements while preserving long-term affordability.

(d) FAIR ACCESS.

Programs shall affirmatively reach rural, Tribal, high-cost, formerly redlined, disaster-affected, and persistent-poverty communities; accommodate heirs property and alternative credit histories; and comply with civil-rights and fair-housing law. Nothing authorizes a quota or denial because of protected status.

SEC. 1009. COORDINATION WITH THE 21ST CENTURY ROAD TO HOUSING ACT.

(a) NO DUPLICATION OR IMPLIED AMENDMENT.

Nothing in this title modifies the prohibition, definitions, thresholds, exceptions, reporting, or enforcement in section 1001 of Public Law 119-101 (42 U.S.C. 19521), or creates an excepted purchase under that section. Compliance with this title is not a defense to that Act.

(b) COMPLEMENTARY ADMINISTRATION.

The Secretary shall permit a common application, underwriting file, environmental review, and compliance report for compatible assistance under this title, the HOME Investment Partnerships program as amended by Public Law 119-101, and the manufactured-housing program under section 123 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. Funds may be layered but not reimbursed twice for the same cost.

(c) SAVINGS.

The resident-purchase right in section 1003, substantive title-clearing assistance in section 1004, and general first-generation assistance in section 1008 fill subjects not displaced by Public Law 119-101. All affordability covenants, community-land-trust rights, renter first-look rights, appraisal procedures, and institutional-investor restrictions under that Act remain fully effective.

SEC. 1010. ENFORCEMENT AND STATE-LAW SAVINGS.

(a) ENFORCEMENT.

Sections 1002, 1003, 1006, and 1007 are enforceable under Title XIV of this Act. A buyer, resident association, homeowner, applicant, State attorney general, and appropriate public agency may obtain the remedies available under section 1404, including declaratory and injunctive relief, specific performance, applicable statutory minimums, restitution of wrongfully retained equity, and reasonable attorney's fees. The same injury may be compensated only once.

(b) NO FEDERALIZATION OF GENERAL PROPERTY LAW.

Except for an express rule in this title, State, local, and Tribal law governs estates, recording, foreclosure procedure, land use, taxation, marital property, and title. This title supplies a Federal floor tied to commerce, Federal credit and assistance, uniform bankruptcy, civil-rights enforcement, and Federal property.

(c) STRONGER LAW PRESERVED.

A law providing greater notice, longer cure or redemption, a lower rate, resident purchase rights, stronger partition safeguards, greater surplus, broader appraisal remedies, or additional homeowner protection is not preempted.

SEC. 1101. CONVICTION REQUIRED FOR FEDERAL FORFEITURE.

(a) GENERAL RULE.

Notwithstanding any civil forfeiture statute, the United States may finally forfeit property, other than contraband per se, only as part of a criminal case in which -

a natural person whose criminal conduct is the basis for forfeiture has been convicted of the offense giving rise to forfeiture;

the Government proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the property is proceeds personally obtained from, or was knowingly and substantially used to commit, that offense; and

each claimant has received notice and an opportunity to contest ownership, nexus, innocent ownership, and proportionality.

(b) LIMITED EXCEPTIONS.

A civil action may proceed without conviction only if the Government proves by clear and convincing evidence that -

the property is contraband per se;

the responsible person died, is a fugitive after indictment, cannot be extradited, received immunity, or is beyond United States jurisdiction, and the Government diligently pursued an available criminal case;

no responsible person can be identified after a documented investigation and the property is direct proceeds of a specified unlawful activity; or

the claimant, represented by counsel or after a knowing on-the-record waiver of counsel, expressly consents after seizure.

Dismissal, acquittal, declination, or expiration of limitations requires prompt return unless an exception is established. A deferred-prosecution or diversion agreement is not a conviction.

SEC. 1102. WARRANT, RECEIPT, AND PROMPT RETENTION HEARING.

(a) SEIZURE STANDARD.

Property may be seized for forfeiture only under a warrant based on probable cause particularized to the property, except for contraband, a seizure incident to lawful arrest when immediate seizure is necessary to preserve evidence, or an exigency posing a concrete risk of removal or destruction. Possession of currency, use of cash, travel, a canine alert without corroboration, proximity to suspected conduct, or refusal to consent does not alone establish probable cause.

(b) RECEIPT AND NOTICE.

Within 4 hours, the seizing agency shall give the possessor a receipt describing the property, asserted legal basis, agency and responsible official, process and deadlines to seek return, right to counsel, and a unique tracking number. Within 7 days, the agency shall give equivalent notice to each reasonably ascertainable owner and lienholder.

(c) ADVERSARIAL RETENTION HEARING.

Upon request, a United States magistrate judge shall hold a hearing within 7 days, or within 48 hours for a primary residence, sole vehicle, livelihood property, or property needed for health or caregiving. The Government shall prove by clear and convincing evidence a substantial probability of forfeiture and that continued custody is the least restrictive means to prevent loss, destruction, unlawful use, or unavailability. The court shall order release subject to a bond, preservation order, mileage restriction, escrow, or other reasonable condition when sufficient.

(d) FILING AND TRIAL DEADLINES.

The Government shall file a judicial complaint or obtain an indictment alleging forfeiture within 30 days after seizure and be ready for trial within 90 days after a claim, absent a continuance supported by specific findings of extraordinary need. Failure requires return with prejudice as to civil forfeiture.

SEC. 1103. GOVERNMENT BURDENS; INNOCENT OWNERS; COUNSEL.

(a) UNIFIED BURDEN.

The Government bears the burden on forfeitability, ownership nexus, traceability, proportionality, and the absence of innocent ownership. An owner is innocent unless the Government proves the owner knowingly consented to, materially participated in, or willfully blinded themself to the specific unlawful use after having a realistic ability to prevent it. No claimant must prove a negative or explain the lawful source of property before the Government meets its initial burden.

(b) COUNSEL.

The court shall appoint counsel for an indigent claimant if the property is a principal residence, sole vehicle, livelihood asset, or worth more than $5,000; the claimant faces a related criminal investigation; or the interests of justice so require. Representation extends through appeal and is paid from judiciary appropriations, not forfeiture proceeds.

(c) FIFTH AMENDMENT PROTECTION.

No adverse inference may be drawn from invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination. Upon request, civil discovery shall be stayed to the extent necessary to protect a related criminal matter, without extending Government custody absent renewed findings under section 1102(c).

SEC. 1104. STATUTORY PROPORTIONALITY AND ESSENTIAL PROPERTY.

(a) INDIVIDUALIZED LIMIT.

A forfeiture may not exceed the least of -

property constituting net proceeds the convicted person personally obtained;

the maximum fine authorized for the offense, excluding an enhanced maximum not found by the jury;

the value of the portion of property proved to have been knowingly and substantially used in the offense; or

an amount proportionate after considering the owner's culpability, economic circumstances, livelihood, dependents, remedial payments, duration and gravity of the offense, other punishment, and harm to identifiable victims.

(b) PRIMARY RESIDENCE AND NECESSITIES.

A principal residence of an innocent household member may not be forfeited. A convicted person's principal residence, sole vehicle, essential medical or accessibility property, and principal tools of livelihood may be forfeited only if the property itself was central to an offense causing serious bodily injury, trafficking in persons, organized criminal enterprise, or substantial fraud, and no lesser property or monetary judgment reasonably satisfies victim restitution and the proportionality standard.

(c) JURY.

Upon demand, a jury shall determine disputed facts material to forfeitability and the statutory maximum. The court shall independently review proportionality before entering judgment.

SEC. 1105. FEDERAL ADOPTION AND EQUITABLE-SHARING ANTI-EVASION.

(a) ADOPTION PROHIBITED.

The United States may not adopt property seized by a State, local, or Tribal agency for the predominant purpose of avoiding a State or local conviction requirement, procedural protection, revenue restriction, or reporting rule. Adoption is permitted only when conduct is charged as a Federal offense, a Federal agency materially participated before seizure or an unforeseen Federal interest arose, and Federal prosecution is commenced.

(b) NO RETURN TO SEIZING OR PROSECUTING AGENCY.

No forfeiture proceeds or property may be transferred, directly or indirectly, to the agency that seized the property, an agency that participated in the investigation, or the office that prosecuted the case. Sections 981(e) and 982(b) of title 18, sections 881(e) of title 21, section 1616a of title 19, and section 9705 of title 31, United States Code, are superseded to that extent.

(c) GRANT CONDITION.

As a condition on future equitable sharing and Federal criminal-justice assistance for seizure, drug interdiction, financial investigation, forfeiture litigation, or seized-property management accepted after the first full fiscal year following enactment, a recipient jurisdiction shall provide a conviction rule, prompt retention hearing, Government burden, counsel, proportionality, return, and public reporting substantially equivalent to this title. A jurisdiction may decline the funds without loss of unrelated assistance.

SEC. 1106. REVENUE NEUTRALITY; VICTIMS FIRST.

(a) GENERAL FUND DEPOSIT.

After payment of valid liens, return to innocent owners, and restitution to identifiable victims, net Federal forfeiture proceeds shall be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury. No amount may augment an agency appropriation or be budgeted based on anticipated seizures.

(b) COSTS BY APPROPRIATION.

Seizure, storage, management, counsel, and disposition costs shall be paid solely from amounts appropriated in advance for that purpose. Congress may appropriate a fixed amount independent of forfeiture receipts. This section does not reduce a victim's right to restitution or restoration.

SEC. 1107. CARE, RETURN, REPAIR, INTEREST, AND LOSS OF USE.

(a) DUTY OF CARE.

The custodian shall inventory, insure, secure, maintain, and preserve seized property in the condition received, allowing reasonable owner-funded maintenance that does not impair evidence. Digital credentials and data shall be protected from unnecessary search or disclosure.

(b) PROMPT RETURN.

When forfeiture is not ordered, the Government shall return property within 7 days to a reasonably accessible location. It shall remove liens, flags, and database entries created by the seizure and shall not condition return on a release of claims.

(c) MAKE-WHOLE REMEDY.

The United States is liable for reasonable repair or replacement, interest on seized money at the applicable Treasury rate, towing and substitute-transportation cost, lost use and income reasonably proved, and attorney's fees. Sovereign immunity is waived for an action under this subsection in a United States district court.

SEC. 1108. WAIVERS, SETTLEMENTS, TRANSPARENCY, AND AUDIT.

(a) VOLUNTARY WAIVER ONLY.

A waiver or abandonment is valid only if in a separate signed instrument that identifies the property and estimated value, states the right to contest and obtain counsel, is not obtained through threat of unrelated prosecution or detention, and may be revoked within 14 days. The Government bears the burden of proving voluntariness by clear and convincing evidence.

(b) PUBLIC DATA.

Each seizing agency shall publish quarterly machine-readable data for each seizure and disposition, with personal information removed, including legal authority, property type and value, charges, conviction, time held, hearing result, recipient of proceeds, return, damage, and demographics sufficient for disparity analysis where lawfully collected.

(c) AUDIT.

The Inspectors General of the Departments of Justice, Treasury, and Homeland Security shall conduct annual risk-based audits. The Comptroller General shall report after 3 and 7 years on compliance, fiscal incentives, owner outcomes, and racial, geographic, and income disparities.

SEC. 1109. AMENDMENT TO CAFRA; CONSTRUCTION.

(a) CAFRA.

Section 983 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(k) ADDITIONAL FEDERAL OWNERSHIP PROTECTIONS. -

“(1) A seizure, retention, civil forfeiture, criminal forfeiture, administrative forfeiture, adoption, or equitable-sharing transfer within the scope of title XI of the Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026 shall comply with that title notwithstanding this section or another civil or criminal forfeiture statute.

“(2) If that title and another provision assign different burdens, standards of proof, deadlines, hearing rights, counsel rights, innocent-owner rules, proportionality limits, duties of care, return obligations, settlement rules, or dispositions of proceeds, the rule providing the owner, possessor, lienholder, or claimant the greater procedural or substantive protection controls.

“(3) An exclusion from the definition of ‘civil forfeiture statute’ in subsection (i) does not exclude a seizure or forfeiture from title XI of the Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026 if that title otherwise applies.

“(4) The Attorney General may issue conforming regulations, but failure to issue a regulation does not postpone or narrow this subsection or that title.”.

(b) CRIMINAL INSTRUMENTS AND EVIDENCE.

Nothing requires return of contraband per se, a weapon unlawfully possessed by the claimant, or evidence whose retention remains authorized by a court under criminal-procedure law. When feasible, the Government shall provide a copy of seized records and release property subject to an evidence-preservation order.

(c) STATE LAW.

This title does not preempt a State, local, or Tribal law that more strictly limits seizure, forfeiture, adoption, use of proceeds, or waiver. The grant conditions in section 1105 apply only after knowing acceptance of the related funds.

SEC. 1201. DEFINITIONS AND REGULATORY BOUNDARIES.

(a) DEFINITIONS.

In this title:

Custodial digital property means a digital asset, controllable electronic record, virtual item, entitlement, credential, or unit of value that a custodian holds, records, or controls for the beneficial account of a consumer. The term does not include an insured deposit, a security entitlement protected by the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970, commodity customer property governed by the Commodity Exchange Act or subchapter IV of chapter 7 of title 11, or plan assets governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

Paid stored value means value obtained in exchange for money or other property and recorded on a gift certificate, store gift card, general-use prepaid card, platform wallet, account balance, game currency, virtual unit, or similar device or ledger, whether denominated in dollars, points, coins, tokens, or another unit.

Platform credit means paid stored value usable primarily with an issuer, platform, game, marketplace, or affiliated group.

Promotional value means value supplied without consideration as a genuine reward, rebate, loyalty benefit, or promotion, excluding value substituted for a refund, wage, settlement, legal obligation, or purchased value.

Issuer includes a person that receives consideration, incurs the redemption obligation, controls the ledger or rules, or markets paid stored value under its brand.

(b) NO CLASSIFICATION BY IMPLICATION.

This title does not determine whether an asset is money, legal tender, a deposit, security, commodity, derivative, or transferable record under another Federal or State law. It does not limit the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal banking agencies, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or State regulators, and applies as a consumer-ownership floor only to the extent consistent with a more specific custody, capital, insolvency, anti-money-laundering, or market-integrity law.

SEC. 1202. PURCHASED VALUE DOES NOT EXPIRE OR ERODE.

(a) PROHIBITIONS.

Paid stored value may not expire and may not be reduced by a dormancy, inactivity, maintenance, balance-inquiry, account-closure, redemption, or reactivation fee. An access device may expire for security if the issuer supplies a replacement or alternate access without charge and preserves the underlying value.

(b) ORDER OF USE.

If an account contains both paid and promotional value, the issuer shall use value in the order most favorable to the consumer, including promotional value before its lawful expiration. The issuer shall separately identify each balance and may not reclassify paid value as promotional.

(c) PROMOTIONAL VALUE.

Promotional value may expire only if the expiration was clear before acceptance, occurs not fewer than 12 months after issuance, and does not defeat a promised rebate, remedy, or consideration. The issuer bears the burden of proving that value was promotional.

(d) EFTA AMENDMENT.

Section 915 of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693l-1) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(e) NONEXPIRATION OF PAID VALUE. - Notwithstanding subsections (b) through (d), funds or value obtained in exchange for money or other property may not expire and may not be reduced by a dormancy, inactivity, maintenance, balance-inquiry, account-closure, redemption, or reactivation fee. Expiration of an access device does not expire underlying value, and a replacement or alternate means of access shall be provided without charge.”.

SEC. 1203. REDEMPTION, REFUNDS, AND TRANSFER.

(a) CASH OR ORIGINAL-PAYMENT REFUND.

Upon verified request, an issuer shall redeem a remaining paid balance -

to the original payment method when reasonably available;

by check or electronic payment selected by the consumer if the original method is unavailable; or

in cash at a staffed physical location for a balance of $25 or less, subject to reasonable identity and fraud controls.

No minimum balance or purchase requirement may be imposed. A refund shall equal the money paid for unused units, not a speculative secondary-market value, unless the issuer promised a higher redemption measure.

(b) PLATFORM SHUTDOWN OR MATERIAL NARROWING.

At least 90 days before a platform closes, ends redemption, bars purchases previously permitted, or materially narrows the goods for which paid value may be used, the issuer shall give repeated notice and offer a no-fee refund. If advance notice is impossible, the refund duty is immediate and survives dissolution, sale of assets, and termination of an upstream license.

(c) TRANSFER.

An issuer shall permit transfer of paid stored value among accounts controlled by the same consumer and, unless prohibited by fraud, sanctions, tax, gambling, securities, or money-transmission law, to another person. A restriction must be narrowly tailored and disclosed before purchase.

(d) ANTI-LAUNDERING SAFEGUARDS.

An issuer may delay a refund or transfer only for the period reasonably necessary to comply with a specific legal duty, verify ownership, investigate a documented fraud indicator, or obey a court or agency order. The issuer shall give notice of the general reason and review route to the maximum extent permitted by law. This section does not require anonymous cash redemption or evasion of reporting, customer-identification, sanctions, or suspicious-activity duties.

SEC. 1204. CUSTOMER OWNERSHIP, SEGREGATION, AND USE OF CUSTODIAL PROPERTY.

(a) BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP.

Custodial digital property acquired by, transferred to, or specifically allocated for a consumer is beneficially owned by the consumer and is not property of the custodian merely because the custodian controls a key, server, ledger, omnibus wallet, or account interface.

(b) CORE CUSTODY DUTIES.

A custodian shall -

maintain records identifying each consumer's property and reconcile on-chain, off-chain, and internal ledgers at least daily;

segregate customer property from operating assets and hold sufficient property of the same kind and quantity to satisfy customer entitlements;

use reasonable cybersecurity, key-management, recovery, insurance or bonding, and incident-response controls proportionate to risk;

provide periodic statements, transaction history, fees, liens, and plain-language disclosure of whether property is pooled and how a shortfall would be allocated; and

permit export or transfer to a compatible lawful custodian or consumer-controlled address within a commercially reasonable time.

(c) CUSTODY MEANS NO REHYPOTHECATION; SEPARATE RISK ACCOUNT.

Property represented or recorded as held in custody, safekeeping, reserve, or a fully backed account may not be lent, pledged, staked, encumbered, invested, transferred, or otherwise used for the custodian's or another person's account. A consent, waiver, or contrary characterization is void while that representation or record remains.

A consumer may enter a separately executed lending, staking, investment, or similar risk transaction only through an account that is operationally, legally, and visually distinct from custody. Before transfer, the custodian shall disclose the counterparty or class, duration, compensation, ownership and voting consequences, insolvency and priority treatment, withdrawal restrictions, tax consequences known to the custodian, insurance, and risk of partial or total loss. General terms, custody consent, or trading consent is insufficient.

Property affirmatively transferred to that separate account may not be counted toward the segregation, same-kind sufficiency, trust, capital, or reserve requirement for any customer, and the interface shall continuously state that the property is not in custody or fully reserved. No transfer may occur by default, inactivity, negative option, dark pattern, or condition on ordinary custody or withdrawal.

A consumer may revoke prospectively and recover property when the separately agreed transaction permits. Nothing in this subsection overrides a stricter prohibition, fiduciary duty, securities or commodities rule, banking rule, or State law.

(d) UNAUTHORIZED TRANSACTIONS.

A custodian shall maintain a reasonable error-resolution process and provisionally credit a consumer for an unauthorized internal-ledger transaction within 10 business days unless evidence shows consumer fraud. This subsection does not require reversal of a technically irreversible distributed-ledger transfer that the consumer validly authorized, but the custodian remains liable for its own security or execution failure.

SEC. 1205. INSOLVENCY AND SUCCESSOR OBLIGATIONS.

(a) EXCLUSION FROM ESTATE.

Notwithstanding section 541(a) of title 11, United States Code, identifiable custodial digital property beneficially owned by a customer, and paid stored value held in a statutory trust under this section, shall not constitute property of the estate except to the extent of the debtor's beneficial interest.

(b) STATUTORY TRUST AND RESERVE.

An issuer of paid stored value shall maintain in trust cash or permissible low-risk liquid assets at least equal to outstanding paid balances, unless a Federal or State prudential regime requires equal or greater safeguarding. Trust assets may be used only for redemption and reasonable direct administration approved by the court.

(c) SHORTFALL.

If fungible customer property is pooled and a shortfall remains after recovery from the custodian and responsible third parties, customers share the available property pro rata without regard to whether particular units can be traced. Claims for the shortfall retain all other priority, insurance, restitution, and fraud remedies.

(d) SUCCESSOR.

A person acquiring substantially all of an issuer's platform, brand, customer accounts, or redemption business assumes the outstanding paid-value obligations unless the transaction provides and funds full refunds before closing.

SEC. 1206. ACCOUNT TERMINATION AND CONDUCT SEPARATION.

Suspension or termination for account conduct does not extinguish paid stored value or custodial digital property unrelated to the alleged conduct. The provider shall preserve the balance, permit export or refund through a restricted property portal, and may withhold only property specifically subject to a lawful chargeback, lien, sanctions block, fraud investigation, or court order. A contractual penalty may not confiscate an entire balance without proof of actual loss and proportionality.

SEC. 1207. DISCLOSURES, RECORDS, AND AUDITS.

Before issuance, the issuer shall disclose redemption, transfer, custody, pooling, fees, legal classification claimed by the issuer, and shutdown treatment. It shall provide a durable receipt for each purchase and retain transaction and reserve records for 7 years. An independent public accountant shall annually examine reserve sufficiency and customer-ledger reconciliation; a public attestation shall disclose material deficiencies without revealing protected customer information.

SEC. 1208. UNCLAIMED PROPERTY, TAX, GAMING, AND INTELLECTUAL-PROPERTY SAVINGS.

(a) UNCLAIMED PROPERTY.

This title does not preempt a State unclaimed-property law that transfers dormant value to State custody for the owner's benefit, if the State preserves the full paid balance, permits a perpetual claim without charge, and does not treat issuer retention as compliance.

(b) OTHER REGIMES.

Nothing in this title -

authorizes gambling, money transmission, securities activity, commodity transactions, or tax avoidance otherwise prohibited;

requires redemption in a form that would violate sanctions or anti-money-laundering law;

expands intellectual-property rights in an underlying game, work, mark, or platform; or

prevents removal of an unlawful virtual item, if the consumer receives equivalent lawful value or a refund and the item is not preserved as evidence.

SEC. 1209. RULEMAKING, ENFORCEMENT, AND STATE LAW.

(a) RULES.

Within 18 months, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and Federal Trade Commission shall jointly issue rules for paid stored value and platform credits. The applicable Federal banking agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network shall issue coordinated rules for custodial digital property within their respective jurisdiction. Rules shall avoid duplicative capital and custody duties while leaving no product unprotected solely because its legal classification is unsettled.

(b) ENFORCEMENT.

A violation is enforceable under Title XIV of this Act, with Federal agency responsibility allocated under section 1401(f). The primary prudential or market regulator retains exclusive authority over safety-and-soundness capital methodology, but not over private or State enforcement of the ownership, disclosure, redemption, and anti-confiscation duties expressly stated in this title.

(c) STATE-LAW SAVINGS.

Stronger State, local, or Tribal expiration, cash-redemption, unclaimed-property, fiduciary, trust, custody, reserve, or insolvency protection is preserved. Compliance with this title does not excuse compliance with a consistent securities, commodities, banking, money-transmission, tax, gaming, privacy, or sanctions law.

SEC. 1301. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP-FIRST PROCUREMENT POLICY.

(a) POLICY.

It is the policy of the United States that an executive agency shall acquire durable ownership, open access, or a fully funded continuity interest when purchasing a product intended for repeated or long-term governmental or public use. A recurring service may be selected where its life-cycle value and operational character justify it, but a vendor may not disguise a subscription as a sale.

(b) LIFE-CYCLE EVALUATION.

For a covered Federal acquisition exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, the agency shall evaluate -

total expected cost over the intended service life, including renewals, cloud use, proprietary consumables, repair, migration, exit, data extraction, and disposal;

the duration and enforceability of software, security, parts, and technical support;

the ability of the agency and its contractors to repair, reconfigure, audit, preserve, and operate the product locally;

interoperability and use of open, consensus-based formats and interfaces;

continuity after vendor acquisition, default, insolvency, loss of license, or end of service;

the effect on competition, small and independent repair providers, accessibility, privacy, cybersecurity, sustainability, and domestic supply resilience; and

the residual value, transferability, reuse, and secure disposition of the product.

(c) SOLICITATION REQUIREMENTS.

A solicitation for a covered Federal acquisition shall state, as applicable -

whether the Government seeks title, a perpetual paid-up license, a subscription, or a combination;

required data rights, local-control rights, repair documentation, source or object code, build instructions, cryptographic transition material, interfaces, and continuity escrow;

the minimum support and parts-availability period;

an exit-assistance and data-export plan with prepriced services;

a prohibition on remote disablement except pursuant to an authenticated agency request, binding court order, or documented urgent safety or cybersecurity need;

a requirement that expiration of one service not impair a separable purchased product; and

measurable acceptance criteria for the promised ownership interest.

(d) EVALUATION PREFERENCE.

Consistent with competition and mission needs, an agency shall give evaluated preference to an offer that -

supplies durable ownership or a perpetual paid-up entitlement;

supports local or federated operation;

uses open formats and documented interfaces;

permits multivendor repair and replacement parts;

minimizes recurring lock-in and exit cost; and

provides a longer verified useful life.

No preference may excuse failure to meet a necessary safety, accessibility, privacy, national-security, or cybersecurity requirement.

(e) DOCUMENTED EXCEPTION.

An agency may acquire a vendor-dependent subscription or product lacking a requirement in subsection (c) only if the senior procurement executive makes a written determination that -

the function is inherently continuous or metered;

no reasonably available alternative meets mission needs at a comparable life-cycle cost; or

a specific national-security, safety, or interoperability need requires the exception.

The determination shall identify an exit plan, may not rely solely on lower first-year price, and shall be public to the maximum extent consistent with law.

SEC. 1302. REQUIRED CONTRACT CLAUSES.

(a) FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION.

Not later than 18 months after enactment, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council shall promulgate clauses implementing this title.

(b) MINIMUM CLAUSES.

For each covered acquisition, the clauses shall -

make ownership, license, support, and dependency representations material conditions of payment;

prohibit a unilateral material adverse change;

require advance end-of-service notice and the continuity ladder under Title V;

ensure agency access to records, configurations, logs, and personal digital property needed to migrate or continue operation;

require a current software bill of materials and disclosure of seller-controlled operational dependencies, subject to appropriate security controls;

authorize repair and use of third-party parts, consumables, and service providers;

provide transition assistance at fair and reasonable, pre-agreed rates;

provide escrow release or another continuity mechanism upon objective trigger events;

require flow-down to a subcontractor whose product or service is necessary to a core function; and

provide specific performance, reprocurement cost, data-restoration cost, suspension, and debarment remedies.

(c) NO CONTRACTUAL EVASION.

A vendor’s standard commercial terms, clickwrap, update notice, embedded license, or subcontract may not supersede a negotiated Federal clause.

(d) LEGACY MIGRATION.

The Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy shall establish a risk-based schedule to add continuity and exit clauses at renewal or material modification of a legacy contract.

SEC. 1303. FEDERAL DATA AND DIGITAL PROPERTY EXIT RIGHTS.

(a) GOVERNMENT DATA.

An executive agency retains ownership or a perpetual use right, as appropriate, in data created by or for the agency, subject to the rights of individuals, contractors, and other lawful owners. A service provider shall not assert a lien over, encrypt against, delete, or withhold such data because of a fee dispute.

(b) CONTINUOUS EXPORT.

A cloud, software-as-a-service, or platform contract shall provide continuous export through a documented, secure, nonproprietary format and a complete export within 30 days after request.

(c) DELETION AND CERTIFICATION.

After verified transfer and expiration of any lawful retention period, the contractor shall securely delete copies not required for defense of a claim and certify deletion. Nothing in this subsection authorizes destruction of a Federal record.

(d) PORTABILITY TEST.

For a system designated high-impact or mission essential, the agency shall test export and restoration not less than annually. A test may use a representative sample where full restoration would materially endanger operations.

SEC. 1304. LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES, SCHOOLS, AND CULTURAL MEMORY.

(a) PUBLIC-INSTITUTION PURCHASES.

A digital good sold to a public library, archive, museum, school, university, or research institution with Federal financial assistance shall not be represented as a sale unless the institution receives -

durable access for the promised term;

a preservation copy or enforceable preservation escrow;

the ability to migrate format and authentication as reasonably necessary for preservation and accessibility;

notice and continuity protection before removal; and

lending, classroom, research, or on-premises use rights stated before payment.

(b) PRESERVATION SAFE HARBOR.

A qualifying institution may circumvent a technological measure and make a limited number of secure preservation or format-migration copies when -

the act is noninfringing under title 17, United States Code;

a usable replacement cannot be obtained at a fair market price;

access is limited to lawful institutional use; and

reasonable security prevents substitute commercial distribution.

(c) END-OF-SERVICE RELEASE.

Upon an end-of-service event affecting works no longer commercially available, the Register of Copyrights may approve a secure collective continuity repository operated by the Library of Congress or a qualified nonprofit. The repository may provide only the access each institution lawfully acquired and shall protect confidential code, keys, and third-party rights.

(d) NO MANDATE TO PUBLISH SPEECH.

Nothing in this section requires public exhibition, distribution beyond acquired rights, or continued carriage of unlawful content.

SEC. 1305. FEDERALLY FUNDED AND FEDERALLY ASSISTED PRODUCTS.

(a) CONDITIONS.

An agency that funds the development or bulk purchase of a connected product, educational technology, assistive device, medical device, research instrument, public-safety system, or household durable good may condition new assistance on -

reasonable repairability and parts availability;

public-interest licensing of interfaces developed primarily with Federal funds;

continuity and data-export rights;

accessible design; and

an affordable replacement, reuse, or donation pathway.

(b) CLEAR NOTICE.

A condition under this section is enforceable only if stated unambiguously before acceptance of funds and reasonably related to the funded program.

(c) RECIPIENT LIABILITY.

The condition binds the recipient and an assignee accepting the funded asset or contract. It does not impose personal monetary liability on an employee or officer who did not knowingly agree to assume that liability.

(d) RIGHTS-CREATING LANGUAGE.

If a grant notice expressly identifies an individual beneficiary right under this Act, the beneficiary may seek prospective relief and any remedy Congress expressly provides, subject to sovereign immunity and section 1406. No right shall be implied solely from an agency instruction to a recipient.

SEC. 1306. FEDERAL DEVICE REUSE AND DONATION.

(a) REUSE FIRST.

Before recycling or destruction, an executive agency shall evaluate secure repair, refurbishment, intra-government transfer, sale, or donation of functional equipment.

(b) SECURE TRANSFER.

The General Services Administration and National Institute of Standards and Technology shall issue procedures for -

verified deletion of Government and personal data;

removal of obsolete management locks;

transfer of licenses that law permits to follow the device;

disclosure of remaining support life; and

priority donation to schools, libraries, Tribal governments, disability organizations, disaster-recovery programs, repair-training programs, and low-income households.

(c) NO DESTRUCTION REQUIREMENT.

A contractor may not require destruction of a device or component solely to protect a business model where secure data sanitization, part harvesting, or transfer is reasonably available.

SEC. 1307. PROCUREMENT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

(a) ANNUAL REPORT.

Each executive agency with more than $100,000,000 in annual information-technology or equipment acquisition shall report -

subscription and perpetual-license spending;

documented exceptions under section 1301(e);

end-of-service events and associated migration cost;

repair, reuse, donation, and disposal outcomes; and

vendor violations and recovered amounts.

(b) GOVERNMENTWIDE DASHBOARD.

The Administrator of General Services shall publish standardized, nonclassified information from the reports in a searchable dashboard.

(c) INSPECTOR GENERAL REVIEW.

Each agency Inspector General may review avoidance of life-cycle competition, improper destruction, vendor lock-in, and compliance with continuity clauses.

SEC. 1401. UNLAWFUL ACTS.

(a) GENERAL RULE.

It is unlawful for a seller, platform, billing intermediary, creditor, servicer, manufacturer, rights holder, assignee, successor, or other covered person to violate this Act, a regulation issued within its express bounds, or an enforceable order entered under it. Except where a provision expressly requires a mental state, liability for restoration, refund, actual injury, and prospective relief does not depend on intent; knowledge, recklessness, negligence, good faith, and cure govern civil penalties, statutory minimums, and enhanced relief as provided in this title.

(b) FTC ACT TREATMENT.

Except for a matter assigned exclusively to another Federal regulator by subsection (d), a violation shall be treated as an unfair or deceptive act or practice in violation of section 5(a)(1) of the Federal Trade Commission Act and as a violation of a rule under section 18(a)(1)(B) of that Act.

(c) COMMISSION JURISDICTION.

For purposes of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over a covered commercial act notwithstanding an exemption in section 5(a)(2) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, except that -

prudential regulation of an insured depository institution remains with its appropriate Federal banking agency;

insurance underwriting and claims remain subject to State law and the applicable Federal insurance framework; and

the Commission and the sector regulator shall coordinate to avoid inconsistent obligations.

A common carrier, nonprofit organization, or agricultural cooperative is not exempt from this Act when acting as a seller in a covered transaction.

(d) CONSUMER FINANCIAL PRODUCTS.

A violation arising from offering or providing a consumer financial product or service is a violation of Federal consumer financial law for purposes of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the person’s prudential regulator retain their existing authority, and the Commission may act against a nonfinancial affiliate or nonfinancial product.

(e) NO RULE REQUIRED.

The United States, a State or Tribal public enforcer, or an injured person may enforce a self-executing provision on and after its effective date without awaiting a regulation.

(f) FEDERAL ROUTING; NO ENFORCEMENT GAP.

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection is the lead Federal rulemaking and consumer-protection enforcement agency for Title IX, the amendment to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act in section 1202(d), and conduct that is the offering or provision of a consumer financial product or service.

The Commission is the lead Federal agency for nonfinancial transaction classification, subscriptions, digital goods, products, platforms, repair, and paid platform value, and may act against a nonbank commercial practice within its jurisdiction even when a related payment, credit, or custody product is regulated by another agency.

An appropriate Federal banking agency or market regulator has exclusive authority to prescribe safety-and-soundness capital, liquidity, permissible-asset, broker-dealer net-capital, customer-protection, or comparable prudential methodology within its existing jurisdiction. That exclusivity does not displace an express ownership, disclosure, redemption, anti-confiscation, or private or State remedy under this Act.

If legal classification is unsettled or jurisdiction overlaps, the relevant agencies shall designate a Federal lead and supporting agencies by public notice, coordinate process and monetary relief, and preserve the earliest applicable deadline. No memorandum, referral, classification dispute, or failure to designate a lead may postpone emergency relief, create an exemption, bind a court on statutory meaning, or limit State, Tribal, or private enforcement.

Not later than 180 days after enactment, the Interagency Ownership Council shall publish and maintain a section-by-section Federal jurisdiction and referral matrix. The matrix is explanatory and does not amend this Act.

SEC. 1402. FEDERAL PUBLIC ENFORCEMENT.

(a) COMMISSION.

The Commission may investigate, subpoena, inspect, issue administrative cease-and-desist orders, require reports, seek temporary or permanent injunctions, and refer matters for civil or criminal enforcement as expressly authorized by law.

(b) ATTORNEY GENERAL.

Upon referral by the Commission or on the Attorney General’s own initiative, the Attorney General may bring a civil action in an appropriate United States district court for -

injunctive and declaratory relief;

restoration of access, unlocking, repair, replacement, data return, and specific performance;

rescission, reformation, refund, restitution, and return of property;

disgorgement of net profits causally attributable to the violation for distribution to injured persons;

civil penalties under section 1405; and

any other equitable relief traditionally available and consistent with this Act.

(c) SECTOR AGENCIES.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Agriculture, Copyright Office, and other agencies may enforce or administer provisions within their existing subject-matter jurisdiction as specifically assigned by this Act.

(d) COORDINATION DOES NOT DELAY.

An interagency disagreement does not suspend a statutory right. The Attorney General may resolve duplicative Federal monetary claims by agreement, and amounts shall not be recovered twice for the same injury.

(e) ARTICLE III AND JURY.

A Federal claim for civil penalties, legal restitution, or damages analogous to an action at common law shall be filed in an Article III court. The right to trial by jury on legal liability is preserved. An agency may adjudicate licensing, compliance, or other genuinely public regulatory matters to the extent permitted by the Constitution.

SEC. 1403. STATE, TERRITORIAL, AND TRIBAL PUBLIC ENFORCEMENT.

(a) CIVIL ACTION.

The attorney general or other authorized public enforcer of a State, territory, or federally recognized Indian Tribe may bring a civil action in Federal or State court on behalf of residents or affected sovereign interests to enforce this Act and obtain every remedy available to the Commission or Attorney General, other than a Federal whistleblower award.

(b) NOTICE.

If feasible, the public enforcer shall provide the Commission and Attorney General a copy of the complaint 10 days before filing. Notice is not required if delay would risk dissipation, deletion, continued substantial injury, or expiration of a limitations period.

(c) FEDERAL PARTICIPATION.

The Commission or Attorney General may intervene in a Federal action, be heard on questions of Federal law, and appeal. The Federal Government may not remove a State-court action unless ordinary Federal removal requirements are satisfied.

(d) NO DISPLACEMENT.

A Federal action does not bar an independent sovereign action for distinct residents, penalties, or injuries, but courts shall coordinate to prevent inconsistent injunctions and duplicate recovery.

(e) TRIBAL IMMUNITY.

This section authorizes enforcement by a Tribe and does not waive the Tribe’s immunity from suit.

SEC. 1404. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.

(a) EXPRESS RIGHT.

A consumer, owner, qualifying small entity, authorized fiduciary, or nonprofit membership organization whose member would have standing may bring a civil action against a person that violated a right or duty owed to that plaintiff.

(b) CONCRETE INJURY.

Damages require concrete injury, including loss of money, time, access, use, performance, equity, data, privacy, repair choice, transfer value, or a comparable legally recognized interest. A failure to provide notice, standing alone, supports declaratory or prospective relief and public enforcement but not individual statutory damages absent a material risk that has matured into concrete harm.

(c) RELIEF.

A court may award -

declaratory and injunctive relief;

prompt restoration, unlock, repair access, compatible replacement, transfer, export, deletion, or other specific relief;

actual economic and noneconomic damages proximately caused by the violation;

reasonably foreseeable consequential damages, including replacement, migration, data-recovery, alternative transportation, temporary housing, lost-work, and expert-evaluation cost;

the statutory minimum under subsection (d) as a measure of concrete injury;

punitive or enhanced damages under subsection (e);

prejudgment and postjudgment interest;

equitable restitution, rescission, reformation, constructive trust, accounting, or disgorgement consistent with equitable principles; and

reasonable attorney’s fees, expert fees, and costs to a prevailing plaintiff.

(d) STATUTORY MINIMUMS.

For a concrete injury caused by a violation, the plaintiff may elect, instead of proving the amount of actual damages, the greater of actual provable loss or -

$1,000 for materially misclassifying a transaction, removing durable access, or denying a repair, transfer, or export right;

$5,000 for intentional remote disablement, deletion, confiscation of unrelated purchased property, or destruction of personal digital property;

a greater statutory amount expressly provided by another section of this Act, including section 304(e) or 907(c); or

$250 for another material violation.

A continuous course affecting the same product and right is one violation for statutory-minimum purposes unless the defendant, after notice and reasonable opportunity to cure, commits a distinct later act causing additional concrete injury.

(e) WILLFUL OR RECKLESS CONDUCT.

If the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant knowingly, recklessly, maliciously, or repeatedly violated this Act, concealed the violation, destroyed evidence, or retaliated, the court may award up to 3 times the sum otherwise recoverable, considering proportionality, reprehensibility, actual harm, corrective action, and ability to deter.

(f) DEFENDANT FEES.

A prevailing defendant may recover fees only upon a finding that the action was brought in bad faith for harassment and was objectively frivolous after notice. Rejection of a settlement offer alone does not justify fees.

(g) CLASS AND COLLECTIVE ACTIONS.

An action may proceed under applicable class, collective, mass, or representative procedures. Statutory minimums in a class action shall be calculated to compensate concrete injury and deter unlawful gain; the court may reduce an aggregate amount that would be grossly disproportionate after considering actual harm, affected persons, culpability, profit, ability to pay, and prospective relief, but not below the greater of proven aggregate damages, unlawful gain, or an amount sufficient to remove economic benefit from the violation.

(h) PUBLIC INJUNCTIVE RELIEF.

An injured plaintiff may seek relief preventing repetition of the same practice against similarly situated persons if ordinary standing requirements are satisfied.

SEC. 1405. CIVIL PENALTIES AND RESTITUTION.

(a) PENALTY AMOUNT.

In a civil action by the United States or an authorized public enforcer, a person that knew or should have known of a violation is liable for a civil penalty not exceeding -

$50,000 for each affected person or transaction;

$100,000 for each day of knowing noncompliance with a final order, continuity trigger, or obligation to stop remote disablement; or

3 times the gross revenue gained or loss caused by the violation,

whichever produces the greatest amount consistent with constitutional proportionality.

(b) FACTORS.

The court shall consider the nature, duration, number, and severity of violations; actual and potential harm; degree of culpability; prior history; ability to pay; effect on continued lawful business; concealment; cooperation; restitution; benefits received; and other justice considerations.

(c) FIRST-TIME MICROBUSINESS CURE.

For a first nonwillful documentation or interface violation by a person with fewer than 20 employees, no penalty may be imposed if the person -

did not cause loss of property, money, access, safety, or data;

cures within 30 days after specific notice;

provides restitution and corrected records; and

adopts reasonable compliance measures.

This subsection does not limit injunctive relief, actual damages, or liability of a controlling platform or franchisor.

(d) DISTRIBUTION.

Subject to sections 1410(d) and 1413, amounts representing restitution, disgorgement, or measurable consumer loss shall be distributed to injured persons where practicable. After authorized whistleblower awards, any residual shall be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury. Residual amounts are authorized to be appropriated for consumer notice, digital preservation, repair access, or legal assistance under this Act, but this sentence creates no direct spending and no amount may augment an enforcing agency’s discretionary operating budget without a subsequent appropriation.

(e) ADJUSTMENT.

Amounts in this section shall be adjusted for inflation under section 1608.

SEC. 1406. RESPONSIBILITY AMONG MULTIPLE ACTORS.

(a) LIABILITY BASED ON ROLE.

A person is liable for its own act or omission and for a violation it directs, controls, knowingly assists, or from which it knowingly receives a specifically attributable unlawful benefit.

(b) JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY.

Persons are jointly and severally liable for indivisible injury where they jointly controlled the representation, payment, authentication, disablement, repossession, or removal. A person paying more than its equitable share may seek contribution.

(c) INNOCENT TRANSMISSION.

A person that merely transmits data or funds and lacks knowledge, control, and a specifically attributable benefit is not liable for another person’s violation.

(d) MARKETPLACE NOTICE.

Except for a specific owner-facing duty imposed by section 209(d), 406(c), or 1415(c), a marketplace that did not make the representation or control the product shall not be liable for a seller’s first violation if it -

maintains a reasonable notice process;

preserves transaction records;

promptly stops a known ongoing removal, recurring charge, or deceptive label within its control;

provides purchaser notice and available relief; and

does not contractually prevent the seller from complying.

(e) SUCCESSORS.

A successor that acquires the relevant product line, account system, customer contracts, authentication system, or substantially all operating assets takes subject to prospective access, continuity, stored-value, data-export, and repair duties known or reasonably ascertainable from the records. Allocation of historical monetary liability is governed by otherwise applicable law, except a transaction structured to evade liability is ineffective.

(f) SPECIFIC DUTIES; SINGLE RECOVERY.

Sections 209(d), 406(c), and 1415(c) control the minimum owner-facing remedy when their elements are met; this section controls allocation of damages for additional injury. Liability under more than one provision does not permit duplicate recovery for the same injury, but restoration, restitution, consequential damages, civil penalties, and prospective relief redress distinct interests and are not duplicative merely because they arise from the same course of conduct. A commercial allocation or indemnity does not reduce an owner's remedy.

SEC. 1407. NOTICE, CURE, AND EMERGENCY RELIEF.

(a) NO GENERAL EXHAUSTION.

A private plaintiff need not exhaust an agency or company process before suit.

(b) OPTIONAL CURE FOR INDIVIDUAL DAMAGES.

Except for ongoing disablement, deletion, unauthorized charges, repossession, seizure, retaliation, imminent limitations, or irreparable injury, a plaintiff seeking only individual statutory minimums shall provide notice reasonably identifying the violation 15 days before filing. A complete cure must restore the right, repair all consequential harm, reimburse reasonable notice cost, and cease the practice as to similarly situated persons.

(c) EFFECT OF COMPLETE CURE.

A timely complete cure bars only enhanced damages for the noticed individual claim. It does not bar actual damages, fees incurred to secure cure, public enforcement, or relief for a repeated or knowing practice.

(d) TEMPORARY RELIEF.

A court may issue temporary or preliminary relief to prevent remote disablement, deletion, loss of encryption keys, dissipation of stored value, destruction of evidence, repossession of essential property, or an imminent end-of-service event. Security may be waived or minimized for a consumer with limited means where the balance of harms so requires.

SEC. 1408. LIMITATIONS, ACCRUAL, AND PRESERVATION.

(a) PRIVATE ACTION.

A private action may be commenced not later than the earlier of -

6 years after the plaintiff discovered or reasonably should have discovered the violation and its material injury; or

10 years after the last act or omission constituting the violation.

(b) PUBLIC ACTION.

A public enforcement action may be commenced within 6 years after discovery and not later than 12 years after the violation, except an action to enforce a final order may be commenced within 6 years after breach of that order.

(c) CONTINUING DUTY.

For a continuing duty to provide access, preserve property, stop a recurring charge, or release continuity material, a new claim accrues each time the defendant refuses a specific lawful request or takes a new adverse act. Mere continued effect of a completed historical act is not a new violation.

(d) TOLLING.

The periods are tolled during fraudulent concealment, minority, adjudicated incapacity without a representative, military-service tolling required by law, a defendant’s material failure to preserve required records, or the pendency of a public action covering the same practice.

(e) LITIGATION HOLD.

After receiving a credible claim, subpoena, or notice of investigation, a person shall preserve relevant transaction records, source versions, update logs, entitlement records, communications, and technical evidence. Intentional destruction supports an adverse inference and enhanced relief.

SEC. 1409. ARBITRATION, FORUM, AND COLLECTIVE RIGHTS.

(a) ELECTION AFTER DISPUTE.

Notwithstanding the Federal Arbitration Act or any other law, a predispute arbitration agreement, delegation provision, jury waiver, or joint-, class-, collective-, mass-, or representative-action waiver is not valid or enforceable against a consumer or qualifying small entity with respect to a dispute arising under this Act unless, after the dispute arises, that person knowingly elects in a signed writing to arbitrate that specific dispute or waive the identified procedure.

(b) NO RETALIATION.

A person may not deny a sale, warranty, repair, account, employment, or ordinary service because a person declines predispute arbitration or collective-action waiver.

(c) POSTDISPUTE ARBITRATION.

Postdispute arbitration is permitted if -

consent is voluntary and revocable for 7 days;

the agreement identifies the claim and neutral;

reasonable fees and a remote or local hearing are available;

statutory remedies and public-enforcer cooperation remain available; and

the outcome may be disclosed to public enforcers and as necessary to establish preclusion or enforce an award.

(d) FORUM AND LAW.

A consumer may file in a judicial district where the consumer resides, acquired or used the product, or suffered injury, or where the defendant resides or does business. A non-negotiated forum or choice-of-law clause reducing rights under this Act is unenforceable.

(e) SMALL CLAIMS.

Nothing prevents a person from choosing an eligible small-claims court after a dispute arises.

SEC. 1410. WHISTLEBLOWER AND ANTI-RETALIATION PROTECTIONS.

(a) PROTECTED ACTIVITY.

A person may not discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, blacklist, harass, reduce compensation, terminate an account, deny purchased property, sue under a nondisclosure term, or otherwise discriminate because an individual lawfully -

reports a suspected violation to a public enforcer, employer, manufacturer, owner, journalist, or nonprofit organization;

supplies evidence or participates in a proceeding;

refuses to carry out a violation;

performs good-faith interoperability, repair, preservation, or security research; or

assists another person in exercising a right.

(b) CONFIDENTIALITY.

Public enforcers shall protect identifying information to the maximum extent permitted by law. A whistleblower may submit information through counsel.

(c) RELIEF.

An individual subjected to retaliation may seek reinstatement, restoration of property and account access, two times back pay with interest, front pay, compensatory damages, litigation costs, and special damages of not less than $10,000 for a willful violation.

(d) AWARDS.

If original information voluntarily provided by one or more individuals results in a final public monetary recovery exceeding $1,000,000, the Commission may award 10 to 30 percent of the amount collected, excluding restitution. The Commission shall consider significance, assistance, compliance efforts, culpability, delay, and interference. An award does not diminish restitution.

(e) EXCLUSIONS.

No award shall be paid to a person convicted of directing the violation or required by law to report the same information, but such person retains protection against unlawful retaliation.

SEC. 1411. CONSUMER DEFENSES AND BURDENS.

(a) DEFENSE AND RECOUPMENT.

A violation may be asserted as a defense, setoff, or recoupment against a seller, creditor, assignee, repossessor, or collector seeking payment or possession arising from the same transaction, notwithstanding expiration of the affirmative limitations period, up to the amount sought plus any independently timely damages.

(b) HOLDER NOTICE.

A consumer credit contract used to finance a covered product shall preserve against a holder the claims and defenses required by the Commission’s Holder in Due Course Rule and this Act. Omission of the notice does not eliminate the right.

(c) ASSIGNEE.

An assignee is subject to prospective performance duties it can reasonably fulfill and to claims apparent on the face of assigned records. Additional damages require actual knowledge, reckless disregard, control, or participation, except as another consumer-finance law provides.

(d) PROOF WITHIN DEFENDANT CONTROL.

Once a plaintiff establishes purchase and material loss of access, function, money, or data, the defendant bears the burden as to consent, disclosed dependency, safety exception, upstream rights, entitlement status, technical impossibility, and records uniquely within its control.

SEC. 1412. ENFORCEMENT TRANSPARENCY AND COMPLAINT DATA.

(a) OWNERSHIP COMPLAINT PORTAL.

The Commission shall maintain an accessible portal through which a person may report ownership, subscription, repair, continuity, digital-removal, repossession, stored-value, or account-confiscation issues and attach receipts or technical evidence.

(b) ROUTING.

The portal shall route complaints to the appropriate Federal, State, territorial, or Tribal public enforcer under privacy-protective agreements and provide the complainant a tracking number.

(c) PUBLIC DATA.

The Commission shall publish quarterly aggregate data by practice, product category, company, and resolution, after removing personal and protected security information. A complaint is not a finding of liability.

(d) ORDERS AND SETTLEMENTS.

Final public orders and settlements shall be searchable, machine-readable, and accompanied by compliance reports, except for information lawfully withheld.

(e) REPEAT-PRACTICE NOTICE.

If reliable data indicates a repeated practice causing material ownership loss, the Commission shall notify the person, permit a prompt response, and decide within 90 days whether to investigate, refer, issue consumer guidance, or close the matter with a public explanation.

SEC. 1413. NO SELF-FUNDING INCENTIVE.

Civil penalties and forfeitures recovered under this Act shall be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury after restitution and whistleblower awards, unless Congress specifically appropriates an amount for a victim-remediation or ownership program. An enforcing office’s annual budget may not be calculated as a percentage of its recoveries.

SEC. 1414. CRIMINAL OFFENSES FOR DESTRUCTION AND FRAUD.

(a) INTENTIONAL MASS DESTRUCTION.

Whoever, with intent to defraud or extort and without lawful authority, knowingly deploys a remote action that disables or destroys purchased property of 1,000 or more persons or causes aggregate loss exceeding $1,000,000 shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

(b) CONTINUITY OR EVIDENCE TAMPERING.

Whoever knowingly destroys, corrupts, or conceals continuity escrow, entitlement records, or cryptographic material after a legal duty to preserve or release it, with intent to deprive owners or obstruct an investigation, shall be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both.

(c) AUTHORIZED SECURITY ACTION.

This section does not criminalize a good-faith security response, lawful recall, court-ordered act, ordinary error, protected security research, or inability to perform caused by events beyond reasonable control.

(d) NO NEGLIGENCE CRIME.

Criminal liability requires the mental state expressly stated and may not be based on negligence, breach of contract alone, or a reasonable legal interpretation disclosed to the appropriate regulator.

SEC. 1415. FOREIGN SELLERS, IMPORTERS, AND SERVICE OF PROCESS.

(a) COVERED FOREIGN COMMERCE.

This Act applies to conduct outside the United States that is directed to, consummates a covered transaction with, or has a direct and reasonably foreseeable material effect on a consumer, owner, qualifying small entity, product, entitlement, account, payment, or property in the United States, to the full extent permitted by international law and the Constitution.

(b) UNITED STATES AGENT.

A foreign person that, during a 12-month period, enters 10,000 or more covered transactions with United States purchasers or receives more than $1,000,000 from such transactions shall designate and maintain an agent for service of process in the United States and publish the agent's name, physical address, electronic address, and telephone number on its transaction page and durable receipts.

(c) PLATFORM AND IMPORTER BACKSTOP.

If a foreign seller fails to maintain the agent, records, remedies, continuity, recall, or access required by this Act, a platform or importer that knowingly enables distribution to United States purchasers and controls payment, listing, importation, authentication, update, or disablement shall -

stop new noncompliant transactions after notice and reasonable opportunity to cure;

preserve records and notify affected purchasers;

provide every restoration, export, refund, stored-value, and continuity remedy within its practical control; and

be liable under section 1406 for injury it could reasonably have prevented after notice.

(d) SERVICE.

Service on the designated agent is effective as service on the foreign person. If the person failed to designate an agent, service shall be made under rule 4(f), 4(h), or another applicable provision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or under applicable State procedure. A court may authorize electronic, platform-assisted, or other alternative service only if the method is not prohibited by an international agreement binding on the United States and is reasonably calculated under all circumstances to give actual notice. A platform is not deemed the seller's service agent absent designation or a court order, but shall comply with a lawful order to transmit process or identify a lawful service channel.

(e) TREATIES AND COMITY.

Courts and agencies shall construe this section consistently with a ratified treaty and may coordinate duplicative remedies with a foreign authority, but foreign choice of law, corporate form, server location, or contractual forum does not by itself defeat a right of a United States purchaser.

(f) SMALL-VOLUME SELLER.

Subsection (b) does not apply below its thresholds. Such a seller remains subject to substantive duties for a covered transaction, and a platform acting in good faith may satisfy notice and monetary-remedy obligations on the seller's behalf without admitting control over the product.

SEC. 1501. DEFINITIONS AND LEAD AGENCY.

(a) COMMISSION.

In this Act, “Commission” means the Federal Trade Commission.

(b) LEAD COORDINATING ROLE.

The Commission shall coordinate implementation of the generally applicable commercial provisions of this Act, subject to the specific authority of other agencies and the Attorney General.

(c) EXECUTIVE SUPERVISION.

Nothing in this Act creates tenure protection, removal restriction, or adjudicative authority beyond that permitted by the Constitution. A holding concerning the appointment, removal, or supervision of an officer shall not impair a substantive right, a duty of a properly appointed officer, or judicial and State enforcement.

SEC. 1502. OFFICE OF OWNERSHIP AND DURABILITY.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.

The Commission shall establish an Office of Ownership and Durability headed by a Director appointed by the Chair and subject to ordinary Commission and executive supervision.

(b) DUTIES.

The Office shall -

administer transaction-label, subscription, digital-ownership, continuity, repair, durability, and interoperability rules;

operate the complaint portal and Ownership Ombudsman;

conduct market studies, technical testing, and consumer education;

coordinate enforcement and rulemaking;

assist small businesses and independent repairers;

maintain model receipts, notices, cancellation controls, continuity plans, and compliance guides;

monitor end-of-service events and emergency risks to purchased property; and

support research and standards without delegating binding governmental power to a private body.

(c) OWNERSHIP OMBUDSMAN.

The Ombudsman shall help individuals locate receipts, restore entitlements, export data, identify an appropriate enforcer, and resolve cross-platform access problems. The Ombudsman may facilitate voluntary resolution but may not waive a right or compel arbitration.

(d) STAFF.

The Commission may appoint technologists, repair specialists, economists, accessibility experts, consumer advocates, software archivists, housing and credit specialists, and attorneys under applicable civil-service law.

SEC. 1503. INTERAGENCY OWNERSHIP COUNCIL.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.

The President shall establish an Interagency Ownership Council chaired by the Chair of the Commission or the Chair’s designee and including senior representatives of the Departments of Justice, Commerce, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Transportation, Defense, Veterans Affairs, and the Interior; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Federal Communications Commission; Consumer Product Safety Commission; Environmental Protection Agency; Food and Drug Administration; National Institute of Standards and Technology; Copyright Office; Library of Congress; General Services Administration; and other appropriate agencies.

(b) FUNCTIONS.

The Council shall coordinate rules, sector safety, procurement, digital preservation, enforcement, grants, measurement, and international interoperability; identify conflicting requirements; and publish a unified implementation calendar.

(c) NO DELAY OR VETO.

The Council has no authority to delay a statutory deadline, veto an agency within that agency’s lawful jurisdiction, or reduce a right.

(d) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.

At least twice each year, the Council shall hold an accessible public meeting, including one session dedicated to affected consumers, independent repairers, libraries, disability communities, rural and Tribal communities, small firms, labor, cybersecurity researchers, and environmental organizations.

SEC. 1504. RULEMAKING STANDARDS AND LIMITS.

(a) INITIAL RULES.

Each assigned agency shall issue proposed rules not later than 12 months and final rules not later than 24 months after enactment, except where a title specifies an earlier date.

(b) CONGRESSIONAL POLICY AND BOUNDARIES.

In issuing a rule, an agency shall implement the statutory policy of durable, practical ownership and shall consider -

the reasonable purchaser’s understanding;

product price and reasonable useful life;

technical feasibility of local control, repair, export, and continuity;

actual safety, cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, environmental, emissions, and third-party-rights risks;

less restrictive alternatives;

effect on competition, entry, small business, rural access, low-income households, disability access, and independent repair;

life-cycle waste and resource use;

transition cost and reliance interests; and

measurable effectiveness and administrability.

(c) LIMITS.

An agency may not -

exempt an entire product sector without product-specific findings and an effective alternative protection;

authorize notice plus silence as consent;

permit a seller to confiscate unrelated property;

eliminate a statutory private action or State remedy;

shorten a statutory support, notice, cure, export, or limitations period;

mandate publication of expressive source code or trade secrets where confidential escrow, an interface, a user-specific key, or another less intrusive means is effective; or

use a general grant of rulemaking authority to decide a major policy Congress resolved in this Act.

(d) TECHNICAL UPDATES.

An agency may update technical formats, security protocols, product schedules, monetary thresholds, and performance metrics after notice and comment, consistent with statutory floors and factors.

(e) PRIVATE STANDARDS.

An agency may recognize a voluntary consensus standard only if the agency independently determines, on a public record, that the standard satisfies this Act. A private body may advise but may not make, enforce, or finally interpret Federal law.

(f) SMALL-ENTITY COMPLIANCE.

Rules shall provide free model forms, open-source reference implementations, phased reporting, and technical assistance for small entities. An accommodation may simplify method or recordkeeping but may not permit loss of purchased property, unauthorized charging, remote disablement, confiscation, or denial of a core remedy.

(g) REVIEW.

A reviewing court shall decide all questions of law using independent judgment and shall set aside agency action that exceeds express authority, lacks substantial evidentiary support where required, or is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or contrary to constitutional right.

SEC. 1505. TEMPORARY SAFETY AND CYBERSECURITY ORDERS.

(a) ORDER.

The Commission or a sector safety agency may issue a temporary order permitting or requiring a narrowly tailored remote action or restriction if specific evidence shows an imminent and substantial risk of death, serious bodily injury, material cybersecurity compromise, unlawful spectrum interference, or equivalent public harm.

(b) CONTENT.

The order shall identify the risk, affected products, evidence, action, duration, owner notice, data protections, safe alternative, restoration plan, and responsible person.

(c) DURATION AND REVIEW.

An emergency order expires after 10 days unless the agency provides each reasonably identifiable affected person notice and an opportunity for an on-record expedited hearing. The hearing shall begin not later than 14 days after a timely request, the agency bears the burden on each statutory element, and a reasoned decision shall issue not later than 7 days after the record closes. An order expires after 30 days unless sustained on that record. No extension may exceed 180 days without notice-and-comment rulemaking or a court order. Protected or classified evidence may be addressed through summaries, cleared counsel, or protective procedures consistent with a meaningful opportunity to respond.

(d) OWNER REMEDY.

Where an order materially removes a purchased function for more than 30 days, the seller shall provide safe restoration, repair, comparable replacement, or equitable refund unless the owner caused the danger through unlawful modification.

(e) JUDICIAL REVIEW.

An affected owner, seller, repairer, or public-interest organization may, within 60 days after an order or at any time during continuing application, petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit or the circuit in which the petitioner resides or has its principal place of business. An action to enforce an individualized order, or to obtain relief against its individualized application, may be brought in a district court of proper venue. The agency shall file the administrative record within 5 business days after service. The court shall decide legal questions independently, review factual findings for substantial evidence, may stay an order under the ordinary equitable factors, and shall expedite a claim of continuing loss of use or imminent harm.

SEC. 1506. OWNERSHIP RESEARCH, TESTING, AND METRICS.

(a) NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY.

NIST shall develop open measurement methods for product support life, update effect, battery and performance degradation, offline functionality, data portability, repairability, parts pairing, interoperability, and continuity readiness.

(b) NO MANDATED BACKDOOR.

No standard may require a universal decryption key, weaken end-to-end encryption, or create an undisclosed governmental access mechanism.

(c) TEST LABORATORIES.

The Commission may accredit independent laboratories and fund State, Tribal, academic, and nonprofit testing. Accreditation criteria shall address conflicts of interest, reproducibility, accessibility, and secure handling of vulnerabilities and trade secrets.

(d) OWNERSHIP DURABILITY INDEX.

Not later than 3 years after enactment, the Commission shall publish a voluntary comparison index displaying support period, repair access, parts cost, offline function, transferability, data export, advertising, and end-of-service preparedness. A seller may not misrepresent an index score or use a self-created lookalike seal.

(e) ANNUAL MARKET REPORT.

The Commission shall report annually on subscription charges, digital removals, end-of-service events, remote-disable incidents, repair markets, product life, e-waste avoidance, consumer loss, remedies, and concentrated lock-in.

SEC. 1507. OWNERSHIP INFRASTRUCTURE GRANTS.

(a) COMMUNITY REPAIR AND REUSE.

The Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Economic Development Administration and in consultation with the Commission, may award competitive grants to States, Tribes, local governments, libraries, schools, workforce organizations, cooperatives, and nonprofit organizations for -

community repair clinics and tool libraries;

independent-repair apprenticeships and worker training;

accessible repair services and rural mobile repair;

refurbishment and secure device reuse;

testing, documentation translation, and open diagnostic tools;

disaster-recovery repair; and

small-business transition assistance.

(b) DIGITAL CONTINUITY AND PRESERVATION.

The Librarian of Congress and Secretary of Commerce may award grants for secure continuity repositories, authentication escrow, open migration tools, emulation research, format preservation, and restoration of abandoned but lawfully acquired digital goods.

(c) OWNERSHIP PRESERVATION AND OPPORTUNITY.

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Secretary of Agriculture may award grants under Title X for title clearing, heirs-property legal services, first-generation ownership, community land trusts, resident-owned manufactured-home communities, shared-equity programs, foreclosure prevention, and recovery of wrongfully withheld surplus.

(d) LABOR STANDARDS.

A construction or infrastructure project receiving more than $1,000,000 under this section shall comply with applicable prevailing-wage, registered-apprenticeship, nondiscrimination, and domestic-preference requirements specified by law.

(e) COMMUNITY BENEFIT AND ACCESS.

Selection criteria shall prioritize measurable consumer benefit; service to low-income, rural, Tribal, disability, veteran, and historically excluded communities; worker voice; affordable access; privacy and cybersecurity; and long-term financial sustainability.

(f) NO VENDOR CAPTURE.

A grant may not subsidize a manufacturer-controlled program that excludes independent repair, conditions access on product sales, or uses participant data for advertising.

SEC. 1508. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

(a) ENFORCEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION.

There are authorized to be appropriated for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2036 -

$125,000,000 to the Commission;

$60,000,000 to the Department of Justice;

$45,000,000 in aggregate to NIST, the Copyright Office, and Library of Congress;

$35,000,000 in aggregate to sector safety and communications agencies;

$35,000,000 to the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture for administration and technical assistance; and

$150,000,000 to the Judiciary and Federal Defender Services for prompt hearings, appointed counsel, court technology, and administration required by Titles IX through XI.

(b) GRANTS.

There are authorized to be appropriated -

$750,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2036 for community repair, reuse, workforce, and small-business transition grants;

$250,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2036 for digital continuity and preservation;

$100,000,000 for fiscal year 2027 and $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2028 through 2031 for Federal legacy-system migration and procurement tools.

Amounts for the Ownership Opportunity Fund and its required allocations are authorized exclusively by section 1008 and are not duplicated by this subsection.

(c) AVAILABILITY.

Grant and migration amounts remain available until expended. Administrative amounts remain available for 2 fiscal years.

(d) NO MANDATORY SPENDING CREATED.

Except where another section expressly provides direct spending, this section authorizes appropriations and does not itself appropriate funds.

(e) SUPPLANTING.

Funds shall supplement, not supplant, existing repair, housing, legal-aid, library, workforce, rural, Tribal, or consumer-protection funds.

SEC. 1509. OVERSIGHT, AUDIT, AND PROGRAM INTEGRITY.

(a) GAO REVIEW.

The Comptroller General shall review implementation 2, 5, and 10 years after enactment, including consumer outcomes, market entry, compliance cost, security effects, agency coordination, litigation, grant distribution, housing-equity preservation, forfeiture incentives, and unintended consequences.

(b) INSPECTORS GENERAL.

Agency Inspectors General shall coordinate audit of grant fraud, conflicts of interest, vendor capture, whistleblower retaliation, and misuse of consumer or escrow data.

(c) RECIPIENT TRANSPARENCY.

A recipient of more than $100,000 shall report expenditures and measurable outcomes in a standardized machine-readable form. Reports shall protect household identities and cybersecurity-sensitive information.

(d) CLAWBACK AND DUE PROCESS.

After notice and opportunity for a hearing, an agency may recover funds obtained by material misrepresentation or knowingly used for an ineligible purpose. A good-faith recipient shall have an opportunity to correct a remediable documentation defect.

SEC. 1510. INTERNATIONAL AND INTERSTATE COORDINATION.

(a) INTEROPERABILITY.

The United States Trade Representative, Department of Commerce, Commission, and Department of State shall promote interoperable transaction labels, repair information, software-support disclosures, portability formats, and continuity standards while preserving domestic consumer protections.

(b) NO DOWNWARD HARMONIZATION.

An international agreement or model standard may not be implemented by executive action to reduce a right or remedy Congress supplied in this Act.

(c) CROSS-BORDER REMEDIES.

The Commission may cooperate with foreign consumer, competition, privacy, and market-surveillance authorities under agreements protecting confidential information and due process.

SEC. 1601. APPLICATION TO EXISTING AND FUTURE TRANSACTIONS.

(a) PROSPECTIVE MONETARY LIABILITY.

Except as expressly provided, a person is not liable under this Act for damages or penalties based solely on conduct completed before enactment.

(b) POST-EFFECTIVE-DATE CONDUCT.

On and after the applicable effective date, this Act applies to a remote action, recurring charge, renewal, removal, account termination, refusal to export, end-of-service event, repossession, seizure, forfeiture, foreclosure sale, or other new act or omission, even if the original transaction occurred earlier.

(c) LEGACY ENTITLEMENTS.

For a pre-enactment digital good or connected product represented as a purchase, a seller shall not after the general effective date newly remove access or a core function. If performance is technically or legally impossible despite reasonable continuity steps, the seller shall provide the remedy under section 504, considering age, price, disclosed duration, and value already received.

(d) NO DUTY TO RECREATE DESTROYED PROPERTY.

This Act does not require recreation of a digital good or data irretrievably and lawfully destroyed before enactment, but it does require preservation of remaining records and does not limit a claim under prior law.

(e) RELIANCE AND TRANSITION.

In setting a compliance schedule, an agency may consider substantial good-faith reliance and technical feasibility, but may not authorize a new removal, remote disablement, unauthorized charge, confiscation of unrelated property, or destruction of personal digital property.

SEC. 1602. GENERAL EFFECTIVE DATES.

(a) DEFINITIONS FOR TRANSITION.

In this Act:

The term “applicable effective date” means the date assigned to a section or subsection by this section or by a more specific express transition provision.

The term “general effective date,” as used in section 1601(c), means the date that is 1 year after enactment.

(b) ENACTMENT DATE.

Sections 1, 101 through 110, 1001, 1008 through 1009, 1402 through 1403, 1501 through 1510, and 1601 through 1610 take effect on enactment. An enforcement, administrative, definitional, rule-of-construction, or funding provision that takes effect under this subsection does not accelerate a substantive duty assigned a later date.

(c) 180 DAYS AFTER ENACTMENT.

Sections 301, 304, 307, 311 through 313, 1005, 1101 through 1109, 1407, and 1411 through 1412 take effect 180 days after enactment.

(d) 1 YEAR AFTER ENACTMENT.

Sections 201 through 211, 302 through 303, 305 through 306, 308 through 310, 403 through 405, 409, 603, 606, 901 through 910, 1002, 1006 through 1007, 1010, 1201 through 1209, 1401, 1404 through 1406, 1408 through 1410, and 1413 through 1415 take effect 1 year after enactment.

(e) 18 MONTHS AFTER ENACTMENT.

Sections 401 through 402, 406 through 408, 410 through 412, 601 through 602, 605, 607 through 609, 701 through 711, and 801 through 812 take effect 18 months after enactment.

(f) 2 YEARS AFTER ENACTMENT.

Sections 501 through 512, 604, 610 through 611, 1003 through 1004, and 1301 through 1307 take effect 2 years after enactment.

(g) DEPENDENT PROVISIONS.

A definition, defense, exception, rule of construction, evidentiary rule, remedy, or enforcement authority necessary to implement an earlier-effective duty applies to that duty on the earlier date, but only to that extent. A later-effective substantive duty is not accelerated by this subsection.

If an earlier-effective section expressly requires relief under section 504, the remedial sequence, owner election, valuation rule, and refund floor in section 504 apply on the earlier date solely to the act or omission governed by that earlier-effective section. That limited application does not accelerate an independent continuity-plan, escrow, testing, financial-assurance, community-hosting, source-release, or successor duty assigned a 2-year effective date.

Except for that limited section 504 bridge, a reference in an earlier-effective section to Title V states the standard that will govern once the referenced Title V duty becomes effective and does not accelerate that independent duty. Before that time, the earlier-effective section remains enforceable through its own duties and the remedies then effective under Title XIV.

(h) EXISTING SUBSCRIPTIONS AND RECURRING AUTHORIZATIONS.

For a subscription or recurring-charge authorization entered before the applicable effective date -

sections 304, 307, and 311 apply to a cancellation, revocation, or charge occurring on or after the date that is 180 days after enactment;

sections 302 through 303, 305 through 306, and 308 through 310 apply at the first renewal, extension, material adverse change, new charge, or new term occurring on or after the date that is 1 year after enactment; and

no seller shall accelerate a renewal, extend a term without separate consent, or divide a charge for the purpose or substantial effect of avoiding this subsection.

(i) LONGER EXPRESS PERIOD.

If another section specifies a longer transition for an identified product, legacy system, or technical duty, that period controls only for the expressly identified obligation. A longer period does not postpone a prohibition on a new removal, unauthorized charge, destruction of personal digital property, confiscation of unrelated property, retaliation, or remote disablement that is otherwise effective.

(j) EARLY COMPLIANCE.

A person may comply early and may use an approved model form before the applicable effective date. Early compliance with one duty does not waive or postpone another duty.

SEC. 1603. LEGACY CONTINUITY REGISTRATION.

(a) COVERED LEGACY SYSTEM.

A seller maintaining a seller-dependent product used by more than 100,000 active owners on enactment shall, within 18 months, register a confidential continuity contact and plan summary with the Commission.

(b) PRIORITY.

The Commission shall prioritize systems whose loss could disable safety, accessibility, housing, transportation, education, health, public records, or a digital library purchased by more than 1,000,000 persons.

(c) ALTERNATIVE TO SOURCE ESCROW.

For a legacy system, the Commission may approve a functionally equivalent unlock, authentication-sunset key, successor arrangement, insurer-backed refund reserve, or open protocol if source escrow would be technically infeasible, disproportionately costly, or harmful to security or third-party rights.

(d) CONFIDENTIALITY.

Registration does not authorize public disclosure of a vulnerability, encryption key, trade secret, or sensitive architecture before a lawful release trigger and security review.

SEC. 1604. MODEL COMPLIANCE AND LIMITED SAFE HARBORS.

(a) MODEL FORMS.

The Commission shall publish optional model labels, receipts, renewal notices, cancellation controls, end-of-service notices, repair disclosures, and account-termination notices in accessible and multilingual formats.

(b) EFFECT.

Accurate use of a model creates a rebuttable presumption of compliance only as to form and prominence. It does not excuse an inaccurate classification, missing material fact, substantive violation, technical obstruction, or later adverse act.

(c) APPROVED TECHNICAL METHOD.

A person using a NIST-recognized technical method in good faith has a rebuttable presumption that the method satisfies the specific security or interoperability criterion for which it was approved. The presumption may be rebutted by evidence of known vulnerability, discriminatory implementation, changed conditions, or a less restrictive reasonably available method.

(d) ADVISORY OPINION.

The Commission may issue a public advisory opinion on a proposed practice. Good-faith reliance may mitigate civil penalties but does not eliminate restitution, restoration, or private actual damages if the represented facts were incomplete or materially changed.

SEC. 1605. EFFECT ON OTHER FEDERAL LAW.

(a) GENERAL SAVINGS.

Except for an express amendment, this Act supplements and does not limit the Federal Trade Commission Act; Consumer Financial Protection Act; Electronic Fund Transfer Act; Truth in Lending Act; Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act; Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act; Copyright Act; Patent Act; Bankruptcy Code; Communications Act; Stored Communications Act; Video Privacy Protection Act; Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act; Americans with Disabilities Act; environmental, emissions, transportation, food, drug, medical-device, product-safety, national-security, export-control, sanctions, civil-rights, labor, and antitrust laws; or a remedy under those laws.

(b) SPECIFIC CONTROLS GENERAL.

Where an express amendment or specific provision of this Act conflicts with a general provision concerning post-sale control, digital transfer, circumvention, repair, subscription consent, continuity, or ownership classification, the specific provision controls to the extent of the conflict.

(c) NO IMMUNITY.

Compliance with a minimum under this Act is not immunity from fraud, warranty, negligence, product-liability, privacy, competition, or other law.

(d) NO REQUIRED INFRINGEMENT.

No person must infringe a valid intellectual-property right or disclose another person’s protected material beyond authority supplied by Congress. A seller that lacked sufficient rights remains obligated to provide continuity by another lawful method, comparable replacement, or monetary remedy.

(e) LAWFUL SURVEILLANCE AND COURT ORDERS.

Nothing prevents compliance with a particularized lawful court order, warrant, sanctions requirement, or preservation duty. A person shall construe an order narrowly, preserve unaffected property, and provide notice when law permits.

SEC. 1606. NO IMPLIED GOVERNMENTAL OR CORPORATE PROPERTY RIGHT.

(a) CONSUMER-PROTECTIVE PURPOSE.

This Act protects the practical interests of natural persons and qualifying small entities in lawfully acquired property. It does not create a fundamental constitutional right of a corporation to be free from taxation, labor law, civil-rights law, antitrust law, environmental protection, health and safety regulation, zoning, rent regulation, or eminent domain with just compensation.

(b) NO RIGHT TO COMPEL SALE OR HOSTING.

Except for an existing duty arising from a sale or other provision of law, this Act does not compel a person to manufacture, sell, finance, publish, speak, or host new content indefinitely.

(c) NO IMMUNITY FOR UNLAWFUL PROPERTY.

This Act does not protect stolen, counterfeit, contraband, unlawfully possessed, or fraudulently acquired property, but procedural protections apply until a lawful determination is made and innocent-owner interests remain protected.

SEC. 1607. SEVERABILITY.

(a) GENERAL RULE.

If any provision of this Act, amendment made by it, remedy, enforcement mechanism, funding condition, or application to a person or circumstance is held unconstitutional or otherwise invalid, the remainder and every other application shall not be affected.

(b) SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS.

Without limiting subsection (a) -

invalidity of an administrative enforcement method does not affect judicial, State, Tribal, or private enforcement;

invalidity of damages against a governmental entity does not affect prospective relief against a proper officer, United States enforcement, or voluntarily accepted funding conditions;

invalidity of a copyright or bankruptcy amendment does not affect a seller’s commercial continuity, disclosure, replacement, or refund duty;

invalidity of a statutory minimum does not affect actual damages, restitution, injunction, specific performance, or civil penalties; and

invalidity of application to an existing transaction does not affect prospective transactions or later voluntary renewals.

SEC. 1608. INFLATION AND THRESHOLD ADJUSTMENTS.

(a) BIENNIAL ADJUSTMENT.

Beginning January 1, 2029, and every 2 years thereafter, the Commission shall adjust each dollar amount and gross-receipts threshold in this Act by the percentage increase, if any, in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers since enactment or the last adjustment.

(b) ROUNDING.

An amount shall be rounded to the nearest $10 for consumer payments, $1,000 for civil penalties and grants, and $100,000 for gross-receipts thresholds.

(c) NO DOWNWARD ADJUSTMENT.

An amount may not be reduced because of deflation.

(d) AUTHORIZATIONS AND AMENDMENTS INCLUDED; NO DOUBLE ADJUSTMENT.

This section applies to an authorization of appropriations or grants under sections 1008, 1507, and 1508 and to a dollar amount inserted into another Federal statute by an amendment made by this Act. If another Federal law requires adjustment of the same amount for the same period, the administering official shall apply the single adjustment that provides the greater protection or authorization and shall not compound duplicative adjustments. Before publishing an adjustment affecting title 11, the Commission shall consult the Judicial Conference of the United States; before publishing an adjustment affecting a Federal program authorization, the Commission shall consult the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

SEC. 1609. DEADLINE ENFORCEMENT AND FAILURE TO ISSUE RULES.

(a) PETITION.

A person materially affected by an agency’s failure to meet a mandatory rulemaking or report deadline may petition the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to compel action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed.

(b) STATUTORY FALLBACK.

Failure to issue a rule does not postpone a self-executing statutory duty. If a technical standard is indispensable and no statutory fallback is specified, a regulated person may use any reasonable, documented method that demonstrably satisfies the statutory performance criteria. After public notice and at least 30 days for comment, the responsible agency may provisionally designate an open Federal or voluntary consensus standard for not more than 2 years only upon independently finding that the designated provisions satisfy this Act, are reasonably available without discriminatory licensing, and do not delegate interpretation or enforcement of Federal law. For an imminent risk described in section 1505(a), an interim designation may take immediate effect for not more than 90 days with contemporaneous findings and comment. A private body's later revision has no Federal effect without a new agency designation, and a court shall independently determine statutory compliance.

(c) COURT REMEDY.

A court may set a schedule, require status reports, and retain jurisdiction, while respecting genuinely competing statutory priorities and the need for sound technical process.

SEC. 1610. PERIODIC REVIEW; NO SUNSET.

(a) REVIEW.

Every 5 years, the Interagency Ownership Council shall recommend to Congress technical corrections, new product categories, repeal of obsolete rules, and improvements in safety, competition, accessibility, privacy, durability, and consumer outcomes.

(b) NO REDUCTION BY REPORT.

A report or agency review does not suspend, sunset, or reduce a statutory right.

(c) NO GENERAL SUNSET.

This Act and the rights established by it do not expire. A time-limited authorization of appropriations does not terminate an underlying duty or enforcement authority.

Discussion Draft

Proposed Joint Resolution, Property Autonomy Amendment, and Constitutional Analysis

This document is a separate and optional companion to the Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026 (the RHOP Act). It is not a title, section, condition precedent, enactment clause, or severability component of the ordinary legislation. Congress may enact the RHOP Act under its existing constitutional powers whether or not it proposes this amendment. The RHOP Act is intended to take effect and remain independently operative if the amendment is never proposed, is not ratified, or is ratified only after the Act has taken effect.

The proposed amendment is deliberately narrower than the statutory package. It protects limited natural-person interests in consumer personal property, durable-use digital entitlements, personal digital material, and residential equity. It does not constitutionalize all wealth, contracts, land-use expectations, or claimed economic interests. Its text is designed to prevent use as a corporate analogue to Lochner or as a weapon against progressive taxation, zoning, rent regulation, environmental protection, labor law, civil-rights law, antitrust enforcement, accessibility requirements, or ordinary health and safety regulation.

PART I - SEPARATE PROPOSED JOINT RESOLUTION

119th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. J. RES. ___

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States concerning the property autonomy of natural persons.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr./Ms. ______ introduced the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

JOINT RESOLUTION

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The article shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date on which Congress submits the article to the States:

“ARTICLE -

“SECTION 1. PERSONAL PROPERTY AUTONOMY.

“(a) A natural person who lawfully acquires, for personal, family, household, educational, creative, occupational, agricultural, mobility, accessibility, or similar end use -

“(1) tangible personal property;

“(2) a copy of a copyrighted work, computer program, or digital file;

“(3) a durable-use digital entitlement represented at the time of acquisition as bought, owned, permanent, perpetual, or available for an indefinite period in exchange for full or substantially full performance; or

“(4) personal digital material created by or for that person,

shall have a right, subject to this article and reasonable law, to possess, access, use, maintain, diagnose, repair, preserve, lawfully modify, choose compatible parts or services for, transfer, lend, give, devise, or receive the material benefit of the acquired property or entitlement.

“(b) Neither government nor a person acting in commerce may arbitrarily or deceptively revoke, repossess, remotely disable, materially degrade, destroy, confiscate, or convert to a recurring-payment obligation an interest protected by subsection (a) after the acquiring person has performed the agreed consideration.

“(c) The rights secured by this section include reasonable means to preserve ordinary, locally available, or functionally equivalent use when a seller, manufacturer, platform, licensor, authentication provider, or essential supporting service elects to discontinue support, ceases operations, becomes insolvent, or loses authority to supply a dependency that it represented as part of a durable acquisition. Congress may provide that compliance occurs through one or more practicable measures, including local operation, lawful unlocking, credential transfer, interoperability, data export, continued authentication, a nondegrading substitute, assumption by a successor, or a proportionate refund.

“(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require any person to manufacture or sell a product, extend credit, continue an unprofitable network or interactive service indefinitely, host or disseminate another person’s expression, surrender editorial judgment, furnish ongoing human labor without compensation, or make an unsafe product or use lawful. Reasonable rules may protect health, safety, cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, children, emergency communications, public infrastructure, and the rights of other persons, if the rules are not a pretext for defeating the core interests secured by this article and leave a reasonable means of lawful use, transfer, preservation, substitute performance, or redress.

“SECTION 2. FAIR DEALING IN PRIVATE COMMERCE.

“(a) Congress may protect the rights secured by this article against conduct by private commercial persons, including sellers, lessors, licensors, manufacturers, importers, distributors, platforms, payment intermediaries, successors, and providers of technological protection, authentication, cloud, communications, or other essential dependencies.

“(b) In regulating private commerce under this article, Congress may establish minimum national rights concerning truthful characterization of sales and subscriptions; meaningful consent; renewal and cancellation; durable access; remote disablement; repair, interoperability, compatible parts and consumables, and parts pairing; retention of represented hardware capabilities; software-version choice; personal-data access and portability; account termination; advertising added after acquisition; artificial degradation; reasonable durability; succession, escrow, unlocking, or continuity planning; and remedies for deprivation.

“(c) Congress may distinguish among a sale, lease, license, subscription, financed transaction, service, bailment, and security interest according to economic substance, reasonable consumer understanding, control, duration, payment structure, and allocation of risk. A label, clickwrap term, unilateral amendment, technological measure, or choice-of-law clause shall not alone determine whether a transaction confers a protected durable interest.

“(d) Congress may provide that enforcement directed at unlawful conduct must be reasonably separated from deprivation of a nonforfeitable property interest, and may require notice, an opportunity to contest the deprivation, preservation of innocent co-owner interests, restoration after a suspension, proportionality, and a refund or other compensation. Nothing in this subsection prevents a temporary and reviewable restriction reasonably necessary to address fraud, abuse, infringement, unlawful content, safety, cybersecurity, privacy, sanctions, or a court order.

“SECTION 3. HOME EQUITY AND GOVERNMENTAL DEPRIVATION.

“(a) When government takes or sells a natural person’s principal residence or other individually owned real property to collect a tax, assessment, fine, fee, or other public debt, the former owner shall retain the property interest, if any, in identifiable net value exceeding the lawful debt and reasonable costs of collection.

“(b) Government may impose and collect taxes, assessments, fines, fees, forfeitures, and public debts authorized by law; secure them by liens; foreclose through fair procedures; regulate land and housing; and acquire property for public use on payment of just compensation. This section does not create a right to avoid a mortgage, rent, consensual security interest, restitution obligation, child-support obligation, or tax. It requires only lawful process, a rational relation between the deprivation and the public obligation, proportionality where the Constitution otherwise requires it, and return or credit of protected surplus value.

“(c) Congress and the States may protect homesteads, tenants, occupants, heirs, persons with disabilities, economically distressed owners, and communities against displacement or loss on terms more protective than this article.

“SECTION 4. RIGHTS HOLDERS; REGULATORY AND PUBLIC-INTEREST SAVINGS.

“(a) The rights secured by sections 1 through 3 belong only to natural persons. A corporation, limited-liability company, partnership, association, trust, estate, government, or other juridical person may not invoke those rights for itself or derive a constitutional claim from an asserted injury to a natural person, except that Congress may permit a representative organization or fiduciary to seek relief on behalf of identified natural persons.

“(b) This article does not establish substantive due process protection for freedom of contract, a particular return on investment, business goodwill, market share, corporate assets, regulatory licenses, speculative value, or freedom from economic regulation.

“(c) Nothing in this article limits otherwise constitutional laws concerning progressive or other taxation; public spending; monetary policy; bankruptcy; antitrust; banking; insurance; securities; wages; collective bargaining; worker protection; civil rights; disability access; privacy; data protection; product safety; food and drug safety; public health; environmental protection; energy efficiency; emissions; conservation; zoning; building codes; historic preservation; nuisance; common carriers; public utilities; housing standards; rent regulation; tenant protection; foreclosure prevention; eminent domain; emergency management; national security; sanctions; customs; or the police power. A law within those subjects remains subject to the express protections of sections 1 through 3 only when it directly and substantially deprives a natural person of an interest identified there, and a court shall give due weight to the public purpose, administrability, distributional effects, and availability of reasonable alternatives or compensation.

“(d) This article supplies a floor. Congress or a State may provide more protective property, repair, consumer, housing, privacy, accessibility, environmental-justice, labor, or civil-rights safeguards that do not deny a right expressly secured by this article.

“SECTION 5. EXPRESSION, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, TRADE SECRETS, AND SAFETY.

“(a) This article does not transfer authorship, copyright, patent, trademark, trade-secret ownership, a right of publicity, or another person’s expressive work. Congress retains its power under article I to define the scope, duration, limitations, exceptions, exhaustion, remedies, and lawful circumvention rules for intellectual property, consistent with this Constitution.

“(b) No person shall be compelled by this article alone to disclose source code, a cryptographic secret, personally identifiable information of another person, or a trade secret to the public. Congress may require narrowly tailored disclosure to an owner, independent repair provider, qualified trustee, regulator, court, or secure escrow when reasonably necessary to effectuate this article, with safeguards for confidentiality, privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, and safety. Congress may authorize a functional tool, interface, key, documentation, local mode, or substitute performance instead of disclosure.

“(c) This article does not compel a publisher, speaker, expressive association, or interactive service to carry, endorse, rank, recommend, or continue disseminating expression. Congress may protect a person’s purchased copy, personal data, accrued value, paid functionality, and access to nonexpressive device functions when an account is terminated, and may require a refund, export, transfer, local mode, or other remedy that does not compel continued hosting of expression.

“SECTION 6. ENFORCEMENT.

“(a) Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation. That power includes power to regulate and prohibit private commercial conduct; define reasonable classifications and exceptions; create national minimum standards; preempt less protective rules while preserving more protective rules; require continuity planning; and provide administrative, civil, and criminal remedies proportionate to the violation.

“(b) Congress may authorize actions against the United States and against a State, its instrumentalities, and its officers for prospective relief, restitution of specifically identifiable property or surplus value, and other appropriate remedies, and may determine the extent of any waiver or abrogation of sovereign immunity under this article. A remedy against a State shall be congruent and proportional to preventing or redressing conduct that violates or threatens rights secured by this article.

“(c) Congress may assign adjudication consistently with article III and the right to trial by jury. Nothing in this article enlarges the judicial power beyond a case or controversy or authorizes reopening a final judgment.

“SECTION 7. APPLICATION AND TRANSITION.

“(a) Sections 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 shall take effect two years after ratification. Section 3 shall take effect on ratification, except that Congress or a State may allow a reasonable period not exceeding one year to establish procedures for calculating and returning surplus value.

“(b) Congress may prescribe reasonable transition rules for property, products, entitlements, contracts, and technological systems existing on the date of ratification. In the absence of such rules, this article applies to conduct occurring after its effective date and does not itself impose damages for completed pre-ratification conduct, reopen a final judgment, or require restoration when restoration is technically impossible or would create a substantial, demonstrable threat to safety, privacy, cybersecurity, or the rights of another person. A court may order prospective access, export, unlocking, substitute performance, or compensation when equitable.

“(c) The words ‘buy,’ ‘purchase,’ ‘own,’ ‘sale,’ ‘permanent,’ and ‘perpetual,’ when used in a commercial representation to a natural person, shall be interpreted according to the reasonable understanding created by the transaction as a whole, not by an inconspicuous contrary term.

“(d) If a provision of this article, or its application, is held invalid, the remainder of the article and its application to other persons and circumstances shall not be affected.”

PART II - WHY THE AMENDMENT IS OPTIONAL AND HOW ARTICLE V WORKS

The joint resolution and proposed article are intentionally separate from the RHOP Act. The ordinary bill rests chiefly on the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Intellectual Property Clause, the Bankruptcy Clause, the Spending Clause where federal funds are involved, and Congress’s powers over federal property, territories, courts, and instrumentalities. It should not say that ratification is needed to sustain the statute, and no statutory effective date should depend on ratification. Conversely, the joint resolution should not incorporate the bill by reference or freeze thousands of words of statutory detail into constitutional text.

Article V requires a proposed congressional amendment to receive two-thirds of the Members voting in each House, assuming a quorum, and then ratification by three-fourths of the States - currently 38. Congress chooses whether ratification will occur through state legislatures or state conventions; this draft selects legislatures. The President has no constitutional role in proposing an amendment and does not sign or veto the joint resolution. The seven-year ratification period appears in the resolution’s proposing clause, not in the article, so an expired proposal does not leave obsolete text in the Constitution. Under present implementing law, States transmit ratification documents to the Archivist of the United States, who publishes certification when the constitutional threshold is met.[1]

The amendment’s value is therefore structural and supplemental. Existing Article I power is ample for most national market rules, but it is less certain for purely local transactions, direct regulation of States as sovereigns, abrogation of state immunity, or a categorical constitutional rule against private revocation. Existing constitutional property clauses ordinarily constrain government, not private sellers. Sections 1, 2, and 6 would close that state-action gap for a carefully defined set of private commercial practices. At the same time, sections 4 and 5 prevent the new right from metastasizing into a general constitutional veto over democratically enacted economic regulation.

PART III - CONSTITUTIONAL AND FEDERAL-LAW ANALYSIS OF THE ORDINARY RHOP ACT

A. Bottom-line assessment

Most of the statutory package can be enacted without a constitutional amendment. A court would likely sustain rules governing marketed consumer goods, digitally delivered copies, subscriptions, platforms, connected devices, repair inputs, and supporting authentication because these are economic transactions occurring in or substantially affecting interstate and foreign commerce. The strongest provisions regulate the terms and incidents of transactions themselves: what a seller may call a “sale”; what must be disclosed; how recurring charges begin and end; whether a represented function may be withdrawn after payment; whether repair parts, diagnostic tools, or consumables may be tied; and what remedy follows a failure to supply promised durable value.

Risk rises when a provision (1) reaches wholly noneconomic, intrastate possession without a jurisdictional connection; (2) treats government and private actors as though the same constitutional rules apply; (3) requires uncompensated disclosure of established trade secrets or public release of source code; (4) operates retroactively on closed transactions or vested rights; (5) compels continued hosting or dissemination of expression; (6) assigns legal damages to an agency tribunal without a jury; (7) assumes the Federal Trade Commission remains an independent multimember body protected from presidential removal; or (8) delegates the central policy choice to an agency under open-ended language. These are drafting problems, not reasons to abandon the project.

The statute should create federal consumer-law entitlements, not declare that every purchased expectation is already “property” under the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment. Congress may define enforceable contract and statutory interests prospectively. But a legislative label cannot by itself settle whether a government action effects a constitutional taking, whether a private dispute presents Article III standing, or whether the Seventh Amendment requires a jury.

B. Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause

1. Transaction-centered rules rest on the safest constitutional ground

Congress may regulate the channels and instrumentalities of interstate commerce and economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce. United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison reject attempts to aggregate noneconomic violent conduct merely by reciting downstream economic effects. Gonzales v. Raich, however, permits regulation of even intrastate instances of an economic class when necessary to make a comprehensive interstate regulatory program effective.[2]

RHOP concerns commerce at its center. Digital storefronts transmit across state lines; national manufacturers and licensors use interstate supply chains; cloud authentication and payment networks are instrumentalities of commerce; and subscription, tying, repair, resale, and interoperability rules govern commercial exchange. Congress should make detailed findings documenting national markets, cross-border data and payment flows, impediments to resale and repair markets, product waste, price discrimination, switching costs, and the impossibility of effective state-by-state rules for remotely administered products.

Each operative section should also contain one or more express jurisdictional hooks. Coverage may attach when a product, entitlement, component, communication, payment, personal-data transfer, or supporting service has traveled in interstate or foreign commerce; when the regulated person is engaged in commerce; or when the class of conduct, in the aggregate, substantially affects commerce. A small local repair shop need not be exempt from every substantive obligation, but Congress may scale documentation and cybersecurity duties by size, role, and technical control.

The Necessary and Proper Clause supports anti-evasion rules, recordkeeping, continuity plans, successor obligations, remedies, and calibrated preemption that make the commercial scheme workable. McCulloch v. Maryland supplies the enduring means-ends test, and United States v. Comstock confirms that Congress has latitude to choose means rationally related to an enumerated power, subject to other constitutional prohibitions.[3] Congress cannot invoke that clause to compel entry into commerce. Under the controlling portion of NFIB v. Sebelius, Congress may regulate commerce but may not create the regulated activity by commanding an inactive person to buy a product. RHOP avoids that problem because it regulates firms that voluntarily offer goods, licenses, subscriptions, or supporting services and protects persons who voluntarily acquire them.[4]

2. Housing and purely local property require a more precise fit

National rules for mortgage servicing, manufactured housing, federally financed housing, interstate landlords, online rental platforms, credit reporting, insurance, and discriminatory housing markets have substantial Commerce Clause support. A free-standing federal code for every owner-occupant dispute, local eviction, zoning decision, or tax foreclosure is more vulnerable. Lindsey v. Normet also holds that the Constitution does not recognize a fundamental right to housing of a particular quality.[5]

The ordinary bill should therefore tie housing provisions to established federal predicates: interstate or federally related financing; federally assisted housing; activities affecting interstate housing or credit markets; discrimination within the Fair Housing Act or 42 U.S.C. § 1982; federal lands or instrumentalities; or state acceptance of clearly stated funds. For tax-sale surplus, Congress can establish procedures for federal tax sales, incentivize state compliance with grants, and enforce independently applicable constitutional rights. It should not assume the Commerce Clause alone authorizes wholesale federal supervision of local real-property taxation.

C. Intellectual Property Clause, copyright preemption, and technological controls

1. Congress can revise the statutory line between ownership and license

Article I gives Congress power to secure exclusive rights to authors and inventors for limited times to promote progress. That clause empowers Congress to define both exclusive rights and their limits. Congress may expand exhaustion, repair, preservation, interoperability, and lawful-circumvention rules; specify when a transferred digital copy is “owned”; and prevent a contract label from defeating federal exhaustion policy. Those choices should be expressed as amendments to title 17 where they affect copyright, not left to an inconsistent state-law overlay.

Existing law illustrates the gaps. Section 109 permits the owner of a lawfully made copy to dispose of that copy, but courts distinguish owners from licensees. Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons applies first sale to lawfully made copies produced abroad. Vernor v. Autodesk, applying Ninth Circuit law, treats a transferee as a licensee where the copyright owner reserves title, imposes significant transfer restrictions, and imposes notable use restrictions. Section 117 separately permits an owner of a copy of software to make essential-step and archival copies. Capitol Records v. ReDigi holds that a service that reproduces a music file on a new medium cannot rely on § 109 merely because it tries to delete the source file during transfer.[6]

RHOP can change those statutory outcomes prospectively. It might create a “qualified owner of a digital copy” status based on one-time consideration, indefinite duration, practical dominion, and consumer-facing representations. It can authorize a controlled transfer that results in one usable copy, require deletion or disabling of the transferor’s usable copy, and preempt contrary contract terms. Congress should specify how that right interacts with reproduction, public performance, derivative works, collective licensing, privacy, family accounts, backup copies, and lossless duplication. The constitutional Intellectual Property Clause does not lock Congress into the present first-sale rule.

2. Patent exhaustion and repair support anti-tethering rules

Impression Products v. Lexmark International holds that an authorized sale exhausts patent rights in the sold item, notwithstanding post-sale restrictions; a patentee may retain contract remedies against a purchaser but cannot use patent law to control the item after sale.[7] That principle supports rules permitting replacement parts, third-party consumables, maintenance, and restoration of intended function. The statute should distinguish permissible repair from reconstruction of a patented article and should not authorize infringement of separate patents embodied only in an unauthorized replacement product.

Federal antitrust law offers a second basis for some lock-in rules, although Eastman Kodak v. Image Technical Services is fact-specific and Verizon v. Trinko cautions against converting antitrust into a general duty to aid competitors. RHOP should create direct consumer and repair rights rather than depend on proving market power in every case.

3. Section 1201 needs a direct amendment

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act separately prohibits circumvention of access controls and trafficking in circumvention technology. The triennial exemptions in 37 C.F.R. § 201.40 primarily excuse specified acts of circumvention under 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1); they do not generally authorize distribution of the tools owners and repairers need. Current exemptions remain category-specific, and some connected-vehicle and game-console provisions are narrow.[8]

Accordingly, a statutory right to repair, preserve, unlock, choose software versions, or enable local operation must include precise conforming amendments to §§ 1201(a)(1), (a)(2), and (b). It should authorize tools and services substantially designed and marketed for enumerated lawful purposes; require reasonable safeguards against infringement, unauthorized access, malicious code, theft, and privacy violations; protect security research; and place the burden on a plaintiff seeking an injunction to show likely unlawful use rather than merely dual-use capability. Savings clauses alone are insufficient because a later general consumer statute may not clearly displace specific DMCA prohibitions.

Section 301 expressly preempts state-law rights equivalent to copyright in works within copyright’s subject matter. A federal RHOP rule can itself alter title 17; a state analogue cannot. The federal statute should separate claims based on deception, failure to supply promised access, destruction of user data, trespass to a device, breach of an extra promise, or refusal to provide a statutory repair input from claims asserting an exclusive right equivalent to reproduction or distribution. It should then state exactly which state laws are preserved.

4. The Copyright Clause also limits overreach

Congress may not confiscate a copyright, abolish meaningful protection for new works, or require a rights holder to supply future creative content merely because a consumer bought an earlier installment. Eldred v. Ashcroft and Golan v. Holder give Congress substantial latitude over copyright policy within the “limited Times” framework, while recognizing that copyright’s built-in idea/expression line and fair-use doctrine help accommodate the First Amendment.[9] RHOP should protect the acquired copy and represented functionality, not promise access to every future version, sequel, server, multiplayer population, or third-party catalog item.

D. Bankruptcy, insolvency, and company-failure continuity

The Bankruptcy Clause authorizes uniform federal rules addressing insolvency and is the soundest basis for continuity obligations triggered in bankruptcy. Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology holds that rejection of an executory trademark license is a breach, not a rescission, and does not vaporize rights the debtor previously granted. Congress may extend analogous protection to qualified consumer digital entitlements, authorize assumption or assignment, require schedules of consumer obligations, and give a trustee choices among continued authentication, transfer to a successor, release of an unlock method, data export, substitute performance, or a statutory claim.[10]

Two constitutional constraints matter. First, bankruptcy must remain uniform in the constitutional sense; Siegel v. Fitzgerald invalidated geographically nonuniform fee treatment without an adequate bankruptcy justification. Product- or transaction-based distinctions are safer than arbitrary district-based rules.[11] Second, Congress should not retroactively destroy secured creditors’ established property interests. Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v. Radford invalidated a bankruptcy law that stripped mortgagees of core rights, and United States v. Security Industrial Bank avoided a serious Takings Clause problem by refusing to read lien avoidance retroactively.[12]

Practical continuity duties should attach prospectively and be funded while the firm is solvent. The bill can require large covered firms to maintain an end-of-life plan, escrow limited keys or executable components with a qualified trustee, segregate consumer records, and disclose the waterfall of continuity remedies. It should not promise permanent operation of an expensive online world after every provider fails. A bankruptcy court needs authority to select a technically feasible option, protect trade secrets and user data, allocate reasonable costs, and terminate a dangerous service. Consumer claims may receive tailored priority, but Congress must consider how that priority affects existing secured credit and bankruptcy distribution.

E. Spending power, federal programs, state action, and Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment

Congress may condition new federal funds on a recipient’s agreement to property-autonomy rules when the condition is stated unambiguously, relates to the federal program, is independently constitutional, and is not coercive. South Dakota v. Dole supplies the traditional framework; NFIB v. Sebelius holds that threatening a State with loss of a large existing program can become coercive. Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman requires Congress to state funding conditions with the clarity of a contract.[13]

Two recent decisions counsel extra precision. Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic holds that Spending Clause legislation creates privately enforceable § 1983 rights only in the atypical case where Congress uses unmistakable rights-creating language. Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections holds that a Spending Clause statute did not expose individual officials to personal-capacity damages where the funding recipient had not knowingly and voluntarily accepted that liability.[14] RHOP grant titles should separately state (1) the condition imposed on the governmental recipient; (2) whether an affected natural person has an individual federal right; (3) the available cause of action and remedies; (4) which entity knowingly accepts monetary exposure; and (5) notice and cure rules. It should not rely on courts to infer these features.

The Fourteenth Amendment applies to state action. Section 5 lets Congress prevent or remedy state violations through congruent and proportional legislation; it does not let Congress redefine the amendment’s substantive meaning or directly regulate purely private conduct. City of Boerne v. Flores establishes congruence and proportionality. United States v. Morrison rejects § 5 as a basis for a civil remedy directed only at private gender-motivated violence.[15] For private subscriptions, digital revocation, repair, and parts pairing, Congress should rely on Article I - not § 5. For state tax sales, confiscation, public-device disablement, or government account systems, Congress should assemble a record of constitutional violations and tailor § 5 remedies to due process, equal protection, takings, or incorporated excessive-fines rights.

The proposed Property Autonomy Amendment would change this analysis because section 6 expressly authorizes Congress to reach private commercial conduct. Until ratification, the statutory findings must not pretend such horizontal constitutional power already exists.

F. First Amendment: disclosures, advertising, accounts, and compelled service

Point-of-sale rules requiring accurate, factual disclosure of price, recurring charges, cancellation method, license duration, internet dependence, repair restrictions, post-support functionality, and material remote-control capability are the lowest-risk speech provisions. Under Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, government may generally require purely factual, uncontroversial commercial disclosures reasonably related to preventing deception, provided they are not unjustified or unduly burdensome. National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra warns that a disclosure cannot be used to force controversial government messages or drown out the speaker’s own message.[16] RHOP should prescribe concise model disclosures, permit equally clear alternatives, and support each mandate with findings about a defined information failure.

A blanket ban on advertisements added after purchase would face more risk than a rule against undisclosed material alteration. Paid commercial advertising receives intermediate protection under Central Hudson. Congress can prohibit false or misleading ads and can likely require affirmative opt-in, a no-ad local mode, or a proportionate refund when an ad-free product is later converted. It should avoid suppressing noncommercial messages or editorial content.

Account-termination provisions require a functional/expressive distinction. A platform may be required to let a user export personal files, recover a paid balance, retain access to a purchased copy, or use nonexpressive device functions without forcing it to continue publishing the user’s posts. Moody v. NetChoice instructs courts to assess how a platform curates speech and whether a law alters an expressive compilation.[17] The bill should expressly preserve editorial discretion, authorize prompt restrictions for illegality and imminent security threats, and require separation or compensation where technically feasible - not compelled carriage.

G. Takings, trade secrets, due process, and retroactivity

Regulation of private economic relationships is not ordinarily a taking merely because it reduces expected profits. But physical appropriation, compelled access, and disclosure of recognized trade secrets can trigger the Fifth Amendment. Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid treats a government-created right to physically invade property as a per se taking, subject to traditional limits and permissible conditions. Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto recognizes trade secrets as property and makes reasonable investment-backed expectations central when disclosure is a known condition of market participation.[18]

RHOP should therefore require the least-disclosive workable repair or continuity mechanism; accept APIs, diagnostic tools, object code, limited keys, or secure escrow where source code is unnecessary; protect material under court orders and agency confidentiality law; compensate a compelled government appropriation where constitutionally required; and apply new escrow duties prospectively. A seller should not be able to invoke “trade secret” as a talisman to hide ordinary error codes or parts-identification data, but adjudication should test secrecy, economic value, ownership, necessity, and alternatives.

Retroactive economic legislation receives deferential due-process review when supported by a legitimate legislative purpose furthered by rational means, as Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. v. R.A. Gray explains. Yet severe, unexpected retroactivity can create due-process, takings, and reliance problems; settled final judgments cannot be legislatively reopened under Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm.[19] The safest design applies conduct rules and damages to post-effective-date transactions, applies future-performance duties to existing arrangements only after notice and a transition period, and uses prospective relief or a measured refund for later revocation. Any backward-looking rule needs explicit findings, a finite lookback, reliance-sensitive defenses, and separate severability.

The Contracts Clause restricts States, not Congress. State analogues that substantially impair existing contracts must satisfy the framework applied in Sveen v. Melin; federal impairment is assessed principally under the Fifth Amendment. Federal uniformity and prospective operation reduce both problems.

When government itself suspends a statutory entitlement or confiscates a device, Board of Regents v. Roth asks whether independent law created a legitimate claim of entitlement; Mathews v. Eldridge balances the private interest, error risk, added value of process, and governmental burden.[20] Emergency suspension may precede a hearing, but the statute should require prompt notice, reason codes, preservation of evidence and innocent-owner interests, accessible review, and restoration or compensation after error.

H. Home equity, civil forfeiture, and the current Tyler-Pung rule

Tyler v. Hennepin County holds that a government violates the Takings Clause when it keeps value exceeding a tax debt where state-law and traditional property principles establish the owner’s surplus interest. On June 23, 2026, Pung v. Isabella County clarified the measure: after a fairly conducted tax sale, just compensation is ordinarily the actual surplus sale proceeds, not a later expert estimate of fair-market value. Pung also holds that the Excessive Fines Clause requires no more than return of that surplus in the tax-sale setting before the Court.[21]

Accordingly, RHOP should require a commercially reasonable, fairly noticed sale; transparent accounting; deduction only of the debt and reasonable authorized costs; prompt payment or credit of actual net proceeds; a claims process for owners and lienholders; and special notice for heirs, people with disabilities, and occupied homes. It may impose additional statutory protections, such as appraisal triggers, minimum-bid rules, installment opportunities, or relocation assistance, but should label them statutory safeguards rather than misstate Tyler or Pung as constitutionally requiring fair-market-value compensation in every completed sale. Separate civil-forfeiture provisions should track Timbs v. Indiana on incorporation of the Excessive Fines Clause and provide innocent-owner and prompt-hearing protections beyond the constitutional floor.[22]

I. Arbitration, class waivers, and jury waivers

The Federal Arbitration Act strongly enforces written arbitration agreements. AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant, and Epic Systems v. Lewis enforce arbitration and class waivers despite state rules or federal-policy arguments. CompuCredit Corp. v. Greenwood looks for a contrary congressional command before concluding that another federal statute displaces the FAA.[23]

An RHOP savings clause is not enough. If Congress wants public adjudication, aggregation, or jury access, it should say: “Notwithstanding chapter 1 of title 9, United States Code, or any other provision of law, no predispute arbitration agreement, delegation clause, class- or collective-action waiver, representative-action waiver, forum-selection clause, choice-of-law clause, or waiver of a right to trial by jury shall be valid or enforceable with respect to a claim arising under this Act.” It should preserve voluntary arbitration agreed after a dispute arises, permit the claimant to elect arbitration, bar retaliation, and specify application to agreements formed or renewed after the effective date. Congress may also direct courts - not arbitrators - to decide whether the statutory prohibition applies.

J. Article III, private rights, agency adjudication, and the Seventh Amendment

A private cause of action must be express: identify the plaintiff, defendant, prohibited act, scienter if any, limitations period, remedies, and fee rule. Alexander v. Sandoval disfavors implied causes. Article III also requires concrete injury; TransUnion v. Ramirez holds that a statutory violation alone does not automatically establish standing for damages in federal court, although exposed plaintiffs may seek appropriate prospective relief.[24] RHOP should define injuries such as money charged, loss of access, loss of use, deletion, impaired repair, diminished device function, unlawful data retention, or material risk supporting injunctive relief, and should not rely on a bare entitlement to sue.

SEC v. Jarkesy holds that when the government seeks civil penalties for a claim analogous to a common-law action, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury and the public-rights exception does not permit agency adjudication merely because Congress created the claim. Tull v. United States similarly reserves liability for civil penalties to a jury, while allowing a judge to determine the amount in the circumstances there. Granfinanciera and Stern v. Marshall constrain non-Article III adjudication of private-right disputes, including in bankruptcy.[25]

The FTC or another agency may investigate, promulgate rules within a clear grant, seek injunctions, administer refunds by consent, and impose sanctions in categories that remain public rights. But contested civil penalties and legal damages for deceptive sales, conversion, or breach-like conduct should be filed in an Article III court with a jury on demand. Administrative restitution should be limited to return of identifiable money or property and net-profit disgorgement within equitable tradition. AMG Capital Management v. FTC also means that Congress must expressly authorize monetary remedies; section 13(b) of the FTC Act does not itself provide retrospective equitable monetary relief.[26]

K. Sovereign immunity, preemption, and anti-commandeering

Article I ordinarily does not let Congress subject nonconsenting States to private damages; Seminole Tribe v. Florida is the baseline. Congress may abrogate state immunity through valid Fourteenth Amendment legislation if it states that intent unmistakably, and Ex parte Young permits prospective relief against responsible state officers for ongoing federal violations. Congress may waive federal immunity and define remedies against the United States, but must do so expressly.[27]

Before ratification of the proposed amendment, RHOP should use four separate pathways: ordinary Article I regulation of private and municipal market actors; a tailored § 5 title for documented state constitutional violations; unmistakable funding conditions accepted by recipient entities; and prospective officer relief. Restitution of a specific res or surplus may sometimes differ from damages, but the bill should not rely on that distinction without a carefully defined remedy.

The Supremacy Clause permits Congress to preempt conflicting state rules governing private persons. It does not permit Congress to order state legislatures or executive officers to enact or administer federal policy. New York v. United States, Printz v. United States, and Murphy v. NCAA enforce that anti-commandeering rule; Reno v. Condon permits generally applicable regulation of States as owners of databases rather than commands to legislate.[28] RHOP should regulate market participants directly, create a federal enforcement system, allow voluntary cooperative agreements, and condition grants clearly. Its preemption clause should establish a floor, preserve more protective state consumer, repair, privacy, labor, environmental, accessibility, housing, and property rules, and expressly identify the few fields where uniformity truly requires ceiling preemption.

L. Delegation, major questions, independent review, and FTC structure after Slaughter

Agencies need bounded assignments. FCC v. Consumers’ Research (2025) reaffirmed the intelligible-principle framework where Congress supplied the policy and boundaries. But West Virginia v. EPA and Biden v. Nebraska require clear congressional authorization for agency claims of vast economic and political significance. In Learning Resources v. Trump (2026), the Court construed IEEPA not to authorize tariffs; only a three-Justice portion relied on the major-questions doctrine, so the decision should not be overstated as a new majority formulation.[29]

RHOP should itself decide who is covered, what constitutes a sale or subscription, the core repair and continuity duties, available remedies, exemptions, preemption, and effective dates. An agency may update monetary thresholds, technical formats, approved security standards, and product-specific compliance methods using enumerated factors and evidence. Broad power to require “whatever is necessary to ensure ownership” would invite challenge. Rules of major consequence should require notice and comment, cost and distributional analysis, small-entity alternatives, cybersecurity consultation, and a reasoned explanation.

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overruled Chevron deference. Courts must exercise independent judgment on statutory meaning, while respecting fact-bound delegations and persuasive agency reasoning.[30] Definitions and delegations must therefore work on the statutory page. Congress should include an express cause and standard of review, allocate burdens, and avoid depending on agency gloss to repair ambiguity.

Finally, Trump v. Slaughter (2026) held the FTC’s statutory for-cause removal restriction invalid and overruled the remaining contrary portion of Humphrey’s Executor. As of August 14, 2026, Congress should not design RHOP around an insulated, bipartisan FTC commission.[31] It may assign functions to the FTC as presently constituted under controlling law, but it should make enforcement authority severable, let the Department of Justice and state attorneys general enforce independently, preserve rules and pending matters despite vacancies or removal changes, and specify succession. The merits of RHOP should not depend on a particular agency-independence model.

PART IV - DRAFTING SAFEGUARDS AND RISK MATRIX

A. Safeguards to carry into the statutory text

Economic nexus. Put a commerce hook in every substantive title and make findings specific to the regulated market.

Substance over label. Define sale, lease, license, and subscription by payment, duration, control, representations, and reasonable understanding; do not automatically turn every cloud service into property.

Remedial ladder. For company failure or infeasibility, permit continued service, local mode, unlocking, transfer, substitute performance, data export, or a proportionate refund. Do not promise literal perpetuity.

Safety valve with proof. Permit temporary, tailored restrictions for demonstrable safety, cybersecurity, privacy, illegality, sanctions, or third-party-rights risks; require documentation, no pretext, review, and restoration where possible.

Repair without disclosure excess. Require only the information and tools reasonably needed; use secure channels, qualified recipients, protective orders, and functional alternatives for genuine secrets.

Conduct/property separation. Account moderation may stop unlawful conduct, but the firm must separately address purchased copies, balances, personal files, paid device functions, and innocent co-owners.

Prospective transition. Phase in design, escrow, durability, software-version, and parts-pairing duties; treat existing products through future-conduct rules, refunds, or feasible substitutes.

Direct IP conforming amendments. Amend §§ 109, 117, 1201, and 301 expressly. Do not rely on an implied conflict with title 17.

Court-ready enforcement. Expressly create standing-relevant injuries and remedies; send legal penalties and damages to Article III courts; preserve juries; expressly override the FAA if intended.

Institutional redundancy. Authorize the FTC, DOJ, state attorneys general, and private plaintiffs in separate clauses, with severability and no dependence on commissioner tenure.

Federalism discipline. Regulate private actors directly, use clear voluntary grant conditions, preserve protective state laws, and do not command state legislation or enforcement.

Rulemaking guardrails. State the major policy choices, list agency factors and outer bounds, require transparent technical consultation, and provide judicial review under independent statutory interpretation.

B. Risk matrix

C. Conclusion

The ordinary RHOP Act is constitutionally strongest as a national market statute that defines honest sales, protects paid-for use, opens lawful repair and transfer, and supplies feasible remedies when controlled dependencies disappear. It should not depend on the optional amendment, agency improvisation, or an assertion that every expectation is constitutional property. Express IP amendments, prospective transitions, bounded safety exceptions, court-based legal remedies, federalism discipline, and redundant enforcement materially reduce the principal risks.

The companion amendment would do different work: establish a narrow natural-person floor, reach private commercial deprivation directly, and protect residential surplus while expressly preserving progressive government. Its ratification would strengthen future legislation, but Article V’s demanding process makes statutory independence indispensable.

[1] U.S. Const. art. V, Constitution Annotated; 1 U.S.C. § 106b.

[2] *United States v. Lopez*, 514 U.S. 549 (1995); *United States v. Morrison*, 529 U.S. 598 (2000); *Gonzales v. Raich*, 545 U.S. 1 (2005).

[3] *McCulloch v. Maryland*, 17 U.S. 316 (1819); *United States v. Comstock*, 560 U.S. 126 (2010).

[4] *NFIB v. Sebelius*, 567 U.S. 519 (2012).

[5] *Lindsey v. Normet*, 405 U.S. 56 (1972); 42 U.S.C. §§ 1982, 3604.

[6] 17 U.S.C. §§ 109, 117; *Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons*, 568 U.S. 519 (2013); *Vernor v. Autodesk*, 621 F.3d 1102 (9th Cir. 2010); *Capitol Records v. ReDigi*, 910 F.3d 649 (2d Cir. 2018).

[7] *Impression Products v. Lexmark International*, 581 U.S. 360 (2017); *Eastman Kodak v. Image Technical Services*, 504 U.S. 451 (1992); *Verizon v. Trinko*, 540 U.S. 398 (2004).

[8] 17 U.S.C. § 1201; 17 U.S.C. § 301; 37 C.F.R. § 201.40.

[9] *Eldred v. Ashcroft*, 537 U.S. 186 (2003); *Golan v. Holder*, 565 U.S. 302 (2012).

[10] *Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology*, 587 U.S. 370 (2019).

[11] *Siegel v. Fitzgerald*, 596 U.S. 464 (2022).

[12] *Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v. Radford*, 295 U.S. 555 (1935); *United States v. Security Industrial Bank*, 459 U.S. 70 (1982).

[13] *South Dakota v. Dole*, 483 U.S. 203 (1987); *Pennhurst State School v. Halderman*, 451 U.S. 1 (1981); NFIB, note 4.

[14] *Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic*, 606 U.S. 357 (2025); *Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections*, 609 U.S. ___ (2026).

[15] *City of Boerne v. Flores*, 521 U.S. 507 (1997); Morrison, note 2.

[16] *Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel*, 471 U.S. 626 (1985); *Central Hudson v. Public Service Commission*, 447 U.S. 557 (1980); *NIFLA v. Becerra*, 585 U.S. 755 (2018).

[17] *Moody v. NetChoice*, 603 U.S. 707 (2024).

[18] *Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid*, 594 U.S. 139 (2021); *Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto*, 467 U.S. 986 (1984).

[19] *PBGC v. R.A. Gray*, 467 U.S. 717 (1984); *Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm*, 514 U.S. 211 (1995); *Sveen v. Melin*, 584 U.S. 811 (2018).

[20] *Board of Regents v. Roth*, 408 U.S. 564 (1972); *Mathews v. Eldridge*, 424 U.S. 319 (1976).

[21] *Tyler v. Hennepin County*, 598 U.S. 631 (2023); *Pung v. Isabella County*, 609 U.S. ___ (2026).

[22] *Timbs v. Indiana*, 586 U.S. 146 (2019); 18 U.S.C. § 983.

[23] 9 U.S.C. § 2; *AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion*, 563 U.S. 333 (2011); *American Express v. Italian Colors*, 570 U.S. 228 (2013); *CompuCredit v. Greenwood*, 565 U.S. 95 (2012); *Epic Systems v. Lewis*, 584 U.S. 497 (2018).

[24] *Alexander v. Sandoval*, 532 U.S. 275 (2001); *TransUnion v. Ramirez*, 594 U.S. 413 (2021).

[25] *SEC v. Jarkesy*, 603 U.S. 109 (2024); *Tull v. United States*, 481 U.S. 412 (1987); *Granfinanciera v. Nordberg*, 492 U.S. 33 (1989); *Stern v. Marshall*, 564 U.S. 462 (2011).

[26] *AMG Capital Management v. FTC*, 593 U.S. 67 (2021).

[27] *Seminole Tribe v. Florida*, 517 U.S. 44 (1996); *Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer*, 427 U.S. 445 (1976); *Ex parte Young*, 209 U.S. 123 (1908).

[28] *New York v. United States*, 505 U.S. 144 (1992); *Printz v. United States*, 521 U.S. 898 (1997); *Murphy v. NCAA*, 584 U.S. 453 (2018); *Reno v. Condon*, 528 U.S. 141 (2000).

[29] *FCC v. Consumers’ Research*, 606 U.S. 656 (2025); *West Virginia v. EPA*, 597 U.S. 697 (2022); *Biden v. Nebraska*, 600 U.S. 477 (2023); *Learning Resources v. Trump*, 609 U.S. ___ (2026).

[30] *Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo*, 603 U.S. 369 (2024).

[31] *Trump v. Slaughter*, 609 U.S. ___ (2026).

Reader guide

This commentary follows the operative bill numerically. Each title states its rationale; each section entry explains effect, policy basis, limiting safeguard, and principal cross-reference. “Counsel item” identifies a citation, codification, or conforming point to verify before introduction, not a policy objection.

RHOP is an integrated ownership code: Titles I-VIII govern classification, subscriptions, digital access, continuity, product control, repair, and transfer; Titles IX-XII cover financing, housing, confiscation, and stored value; Titles XIII-XVI provide procurement, enforcement, administration, and transition. Read individual duties with section 104, sections 107(d) and 609, Title XIV, and Title XVI.

Title I supplies constitutional, definitional, and interpretive architecture, treating ownership as practical household control while resisting evasive labels and preserving tailored safety, privacy, intellectual-property, and federalism limits.

Section 101 - Findings

Section 101 builds the legislative record connecting digital revocation, subscriptions, repair barriers, financing, housing loss, and forfeiture incentives to interstate commerce and other enumerated powers. The findings explain why fine print cannot solve national market failures and why multiple enforcers are necessary. They guide constitutional review but create no standalone liability; sections 102, 103, and 1606 translate the findings into operative limits.

Section 102 - Purposes

Section 102 states the Act’s organizing aims: honest sales, durable use, continuity, repair, equity-preserving finance, secure housing, and effective remedies. Courts and agencies should use these purposes to resolve ambiguity without treating them as an unlimited mandate. The federal-floor objective is implemented by section 109, while the specific ownership rights catalog appears in section 105 and the progressive limiting principle in section 1606.

Section 103 - Constitutional Authority and Jurisdictional Nexus

Section 103 anchors the Act in commerce, bankruptcy, intellectual-property, spending, procurement, and related powers, and places a transaction-specific interstate nexus in ordinary commercial cases. Aggregation is unnecessary where interstate channels or instrumentalities are shown. Spending conditions require advance notice and program relation. The jurisdictional element protects federalism; counsel should coordinate its specialized patent, copyright, bankruptcy, and housing applications with Titles VII-X and XIII.

Section 104 - Definitions

Section 104 supplies technology-neutral definitions that make control and economic reality - not delivery medium - decisive. “Core function,” “durable access,” “sale,” “seller,” and “reasonable useful life” drive most later duties, while privacy and intellectual-property exclusions narrow personal digital property. Its seller definition connects actor-specific responsibility to section 1406, and its monetary thresholds are adjusted through section 1608.

Section 105 - Federal Ownership Bill of Rights

Section 105 collects the Act’s substantive commitments in one navigable bill of rights, including continued use, local control, repair, transfer, account-property separation, equity, and due process. Each right is directly enforceable only to the extent an operative section supplies an administrable duty, preventing the catalog from becoming an unbounded cause of action. Safety, privacy, infringement, fraud, and emissions limits remain governed by section 107(d).

Section 106 - Economic Substance; Anti-Evasion

Section 106 directs decision-makers to examine price structure, representations, risk allocation, duration, revocation power, and reasonable expectations rather than a “license” or “rental” label. Three factors or ownership marketing shift the burden to the seller by clear and convincing evidence. Related entities and contracts are aggregated, closing affiliate and choice-of-law workarounds. Sections 201 and 202 apply this framework to transaction classification.

Section 107 - Rules of Construction

Section 107 resolves mass-market ambiguity toward durable ownership, makes remedies cumulative without double recovery, and separates copy ownership from underlying intellectual property. Its central safeguard places the burden on anyone asserting safety, security, privacy, emissions, or legal compliance and requires evidence, tailoring, and a feasible alternative. The accessibility rule also prevents smartphone, biometric, or broadband prerequisites from becoming hidden barriers. Section 609 supplies the detailed product standard.

Section 108 - Nonwaiver; Invalid Terms

Section 108 makes ownership protections nonwaivable before a dispute and invalidates terms authorizing revocation, forced subscriptions, silence-based assent, repair restraints, unrelated forfeiture, or evasive forum selection. Deliberate overreach receives no judicial “blue penciling,” removing incentives to draft maximally restrictive boilerplate. A genuinely negotiated post-dispute settlement remains possible. Section 1409 separately addresses arbitration and collective-action waivers, while section 210 identifies additional prohibited sales terms.

Section 109 - Relation to State, Local, and Tribal Law

Section 109 establishes a floor, preempting only requirements with which simultaneous compliance is physically impossible. It preserves stronger consumer law, UCC and common-law property remedies, Tribal sovereignty, and independent public enforcement. Cost or operational inconvenience is not impossibility. State and Tribal public enforcement proceeds under section 1403, while section 1406 allocates responsibility among commercial actors.

Section 110 - Severability of Protected Interests

Section 110 protects the Act against cascading invalidation. If one application, remedy, funding condition, or enforcement route fails, the underlying duty and other lawful applications survive. This is especially important where constitutional doctrines may distinguish private damages, governmental defendants, administrative adjudication, or retroactive application. Section 1607 provides the later, more detailed severability instructions for particular copyright, bankruptcy, damages, and transition holdings.

Title II makes transaction identity substantive: sellers may choose sales, subscriptions, rentals, licenses, or metered services, but must label and perform that bargain without shifting upstream risk through boilerplate.

Section 201 - Classification by Substance

Section 201 requires prepayment classification of every material component and separate treatment of mixed bundles. A seller may lawfully offer nonownership access, but a service component cannot swallow a severable purchased product or function. Remote delivery and copyright do not themselves make a transaction a rental. The classification categories operationalize section 106 and determine whether Title III subscription duties or Titles IV-VIII ownership duties attach.

Section 202 - Presumption of Sale

Section 202 presumes a sale when the seller uses ownership language, accepts a one-time or fixed price, omits a definite end date, or treats a tangible analogue as a sale. Rebuttal requires equally prominent contrary classification, full material terms, separate consent, and honest pricing, all proved clearly and convincingly. A buried “licensed, not sold” clause is insufficient. Section 203 governs the interface that communicates classification.

Section 203 - Honest Transaction Labels

Section 203 prohibits ownership-signaling words, icons, categories, and checkout designs for a transaction that does not supply ownership. Classification and total price must be adjacent to the transaction control, with parallel rules for packaging, oral sales, and comparison pricing. The proximity requirement prevents hyperlink disclosure from curing a misleading “Buy” button. Section 204 adds the substantive dependency disclosure and durable post-sale proof.

Section 204 - Ownership Disclosure and Durable Receipt

Section 204 creates an ownership “nutrition label” covering functions, price, account and cloud dependencies, support periods, advertising, repair and transfer limits, continuity remedy, and responsible actors. The durable receipt must remain recoverable without account access and ultimately use an open verification format that minimizes tracking. This supplies evidence for sections 402 and 801; NIST and the Commission implement the machine-readable standard under section 1506.

Section 205 - Hierarchy of Representations

Section 205 prevents boilerplate, integration clauses, and product renaming from defeating a prominent promise. Where advertising, packaging, demonstrations, receipts, warranties, and negotiated terms conflict, the ownership-preserving representation controls. The rule addresses the evidentiary imbalance created by unilateral online terms while leaving genuinely consistent negotiated terms effective. Sections 106 and 202 supply the related substance and burden rules; section 407 defines the protected digital baseline.

Section 206 - Ban on Retroactive Reclassification and Paywalls

Section 206 bars converting a completed sale into a license, rental, subscription, shortened entitlement, or mandatory cloud service. Sellers may charge for genuinely new, severable post-sale services so long as declining them does not burden the purchased baseline. A final court order or legal change can make exact performance impossible, but activates the continuity ladder rather than forfeiture. Section 504 establishes that ordered remedy structure.

Section 207 - Bundles, Capabilities, and Paid Add-Ons

Section 207 treats enabled or advertised hardware capabilities and separately purchased digital add-ons as owned components, even when software implements them. Ending a bundled service may end only the clearly identified service, and replacement-device installation must remain possible subject to proportionate anti-fraud controls. This closes “hardware as subscription” and DLC loopholes. Sections 601 and 802 respectively elaborate capability ownership and verified entitlement transfer.

Section 208 - Post-Purchase Advertising

Section 208 preserves the advertising environment represented at sale. New or materially increased ads require advance disclosure or later affirmative consent plus compensation, a free ad-free option, or an owner-elected refund or replacement. Ads may never obstruct safety, accessibility, repair, or cancellation, impersonate system notices, or consume paid resources without consent. Section 603 extends the rule across firmware, device surfaces, and prepaid subscription terms.

Section 209 - Upstream Licenses and Allocation of Commercial Risk

Section 209 places the risk of inadequate music, cloud, distribution, likeness, and other upstream rights on the commercial actors that represented a sale. Sellers and platforms may allocate indemnity and escrow costs among themselves, but not reduce purchaser remedies. Platform responsibility depends on control and knowledge, preserving a limited innocent-intermediary rule. Sections 406, 502, and 508 turn this allocation into removal, escrow, and successor duties.

Section 210 - Prohibited Contractual Terms and Practices

Section 210 targets recurring evasions not fully captured by section 108: convenience removals, refund-only clauses despite feasible restoration, avoidable online checks, unrelated tie-ins, vague “lifetime” support, account-recovery fees, dark patterns, and retaliation. The list supplies concrete enforcement hooks while allowing necessary authentication and legitimately measured support periods. Sections 402, 610, and 1410 provide the corresponding authentication, disclosure, and anti-retaliation rules.

Section 211 - Exceptions for Gifts, Open Licenses, and Bespoke Enterprise Transactions

Section 211 preserves space for genuinely gratuitous access, open licensing, and negotiated enterprise bargains. Free access may end only without an ownership promise and without impairing purchased property or export. Open-source authors incur no new support duty merely by publishing. Sophisticated nonconsumer parties may vary specified labeling rules through represented, express negotiation, but cannot waive downstream rights. Section 108 continues to protect consumers and qualifying small entities.

Title III creates channel-neutral subscription rules for consent, reminders, cancellation, changes, trials, hardship, refunds, data, and intermediaries, making recurring payment a continuing affirmative choice rather than an outcome of silence.

Section 301 - Scope and Definitions

Section 301 reaches recurring charges across online, telephone, in-person, mail, device, membership, service, and donation channels. Narrow exclusions cover separately initiated transfers, regulated benefits and obligations, and fixed closed-end credit, while optional add-ons remain covered. The section defines the terms material to consent. This broader scope supplements Internet-focused ROSCA through section 313 and uses section 103’s commerce nexus.

Section 302 - Separate, Express, and Informed Consent

Section 302 requires material terms adjacent to a separate, unselected recurring-charge control before billing information is taken or a charge submitted. Telephone consent must be recorded or confirmed; in-person consent must be separately selected; continued use or silence never suffices. A durable copy and cancellation control follow. The rule operationalizes “affirmative express consent” in section 104 and supplies the proof records required by section 312.

Section 303 - Renewal Reminders and Annual Account Statement

Section 303 establishes frequency-specific reminders before trial conversion and renewal, using the consumer’s selected and reasonably effective channels. An annual consolidated statement shows plans, payments, next charges, known use, comparable lower-cost options, and cancellation or pause controls. Promotional content cannot overshadow the notice. Section 304 turns those controls into effective cancellation, while section 308 addresses prolonged nonuse without authorizing new surveillance.

Section 304 - Simple Cancellation and Revocation of Authorization

Section 304 requires cancellation through every enrollment medium plus an online route no harder than sign-up. A single accidental-cancellation confirmation and one optional retention offer are permitted, but calls, chats, surveys, repeated prompts, and channel outages cannot trap the consumer. Cancellation is effective when communicated, with immediate prorated termination or end-of-term access at the consumer’s choice. Section 311 allows intermediary revocation.

Section 305 - Price Increases and Material Changes

Section 305 requires renewed consent after a side-by-side comparison before a price increase or material adverse change. Silence ends the plan without penalty. Consumers may separately authorize only a bounded CPI-linked increase, and plan elimination cannot force migration to a more expensive or ad-supported tier. This rule closes unilateral-modification clauses. Sections 208 and 603 address advertising changes, and section 306 separately governs promotional-price conversion.

Section 306 - Trials, Promotions, and Conversion

Section 306 requires conspicuous disclosure when a “free” trial requires payment credentials and, crucially, a near-end affirmative choice before paid conversion; silence ends the trial. Longer trials receive an additional reminder, and undisclosed promotional-to-regular price changes require renewed consent. Declining conversion cannot disable purchased goods or export. Sections 302 and 307 govern proof of consent and automatic refunds for noncompliant charges.

Section 307 - Refunds and Post-Cancellation Charges

Section 307 classifies charges obtained in violation of the consent and change rules as unauthorized and requires automatic refund within seven business days. Post-cancellation billing carries an enhanced refund unless an isolated good-faith error is promptly cured. Material outages receive prorated credits, and refunds cannot be forced into store value. Proven intentional abuse remains subject to unjust-enrichment limits. Title XIV supplies additional damages and injunctions.

Section 308 - Failure to Use; Dormancy; Pause Rights

Section 308 uses known inactivity to prompt an equal-choice cancel, pause, or continue notice after 90 days and generally requires renewed consent after 180 days. Genuine standby services and specifically elected continuation are protected, and sellers need not collect new sensitive usage data to comply. Longer subscriptions receive a modest pause right. The privacy limit is central; section 303’s account statement supplies the complementary cost transparency.

Section 309 - Death, Incapacity, Military Orders, Disasters, and Hardship

Section 309 stops charges at death, recognizes ordinary fiduciary and power-of-attorney authority, and permits penalty-free cancellation or pause for deployment, disaster displacement, serious illness, disability, relocation, or unemployment in defined longer-term services. Sellers may request only necessary protected documentation and retain reasonable value already delivered. Section 803 governs inherited digital property, while section 310 preserves purchased goods and data after the subscription ends.

Section 310 - Data, Content, and Purchased-Property Access After Cancellation

Section 310 makes cancellation non-destructive: only the subscription ends, not separately purchased goods, hardware functions, receipts, stored value, or personal digital property. Export remains available for at least 180 days, and downgrade to a free tier must use the least destructive option with warning before deletion. Section 804 supplies the export format and timing; sections 403 and 1206 protect vault and stored-value access.

Section 311 - Duties of Billing Intermediaries and Platforms

Section 311 requires payment intermediaries to show recurring charges in a central dashboard and honor revocation, while prohibiting retaliation against unrelated purchased property. After documented repeated abuse, an intermediary must investigate and take proportionate action within its control. A narrow safe harbor protects passive processors that neither designed nor profited specially from the violation and promptly correct records. Section 1406 allocates responsibility by knowledge and control.

Section 312 - Records and Burden of Proof

Section 312 requires six-year retention of consent, terms, notices, cancellations, and charges; gives consumers free timely access; and places proof of authorization on the seller. Missing required records create a rebuttable presumption rather than automatic conclusive liability. Data minimization prevents compliance files from becoming surveillance stores. The records support sections 302 through 307 and the broader burden rule in section 1411(d).

Section 313 - Relationship to Other Law

Section 313 makes Title III cumulative of ROSCA, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, Regulation E, and stronger State sector or cancellation laws. It also treats a Title III violation as a ROSCA section 4 violation and forbids agency rules from restoring notice-plus-silence consent or harder cancellation. Counsel should confirm the final codified ROSCA citation in the conforming amendments. Section 109 supplies the general federal-floor rule.

Title IV makes digital ownership practical without transferring copyright: it protects proof, retrieval, backups, paid value, and functional baselines, separates moderation from confiscation, and allocates licensing risk to commercial actors.

Section 401 - Scope; Protected Digital Property Interest

Section 401 creates a nonwaivable durable property interest in the particular copy, entitlement, or functional equivalent sold, regardless of whether delivery uses download, streaming, tokens, or accounts. The interest includes use, backup, continuity, transfer, and proof, but not copyright title, public performance, excess copies, private data, or unnecessary trade secrets. Titles V and VIII implement continuity and disposition rights.

Section 402 - Durable Access, Entitlement Records, and Authentication

Section 402 requires redundant entitlement records, owner-readable exports, download and restoration where technically possible, risk-based rather than routine authentication, free device changes, and no forced repurchase after ordinary migration. A 180-day authentication floor applies absent specific evidence. Storefront or format replacement must preserve quality, saves, metadata, and add-ons or offer alternatives. Sections 205, 504, and 804 resolve proof, continuity, and export failures.

Section 403 - Account Property Vault

Section 403 requires platforms that combine purchased property with conduct-regulated services to maintain a separately accessible vault containing goods, receipts, value, saves, and transfer or appeal functions. Suspension cannot eliminate read-only, download, or safe local access. Secure alternate recovery is permitted. The vault supports inheritance under section 803 and coordinates with section 1206 for stored value and custodial digital property.

Section 404 - Account Restriction, Suspension, and Termination Procedures

Section 404 creates notice, evidence, human review, and decision deadlines before account restrictions, with expedited treatment for essential services and purchased libraries. Immediate temporary action remains available for fraud, takeover, physical harm, unlawful dissemination, cybersecurity injury, or evidence preservation, but must be narrow, noticed, and periodically renewed. Compromised and family accounts receive special protection. The section expressly does not require continued hosting of speech.

Section 405 - Separation of Conduct Sanctions From Property Confiscation

Section 405 requires a nexus between misconduct and the function restricted. Platforms may suspend messaging, competition, marketplace, or comparable privileges, but generally cannot erase unrelated goods, hardware functions, data, value, receipts, or innocent household entitlements. Item-specific fraud and particularized orders permit targeted quarantine or reversal. Paid virtual items receive local use, exchange, restored value, or refund. Title XI separately governs governmental forfeiture.

Section 406 - Removal Claims, Upstream Rights, and Platform Guaranties

Section 406 bars removal for delisting, strategy, acquisition, royalty disputes, or expired distribution rights and makes the payment or authentication platform the owner-facing guarantor. A colorable infringement claim permits a temporary, least-restrictive response while records and remedies are preserved; infringement itself is never compelled. Comparable replacement or section 504 relief remains due. Six-year removal records support public and private enforcement under Title XIV.

Section 407 - Protected Digital Baseline; Updates and Compatibility

Section 407 defines the protected baseline from prominent promises, delivered capabilities, customary use, and undisclosed “temporary” features used for 90 days. Updates and controlled interfaces may not materially regress that baseline or force new commercial terms. Third-party compatibility failures require reasonable efforts, notice, migration, and remedy rather than strict perpetual compatibility. Owners may choose restoration, a prior version, replacement, or value-based refund. Sections 607-609 govern exceptions.

Section 408 - Live-Service, Shared-World, and Community-Hosted Products

Section 408 separates persistent purchases from genuinely live moderation, events, rankings, matchmaking, and future content. “Live service” cannot erase campaigns, maps, editors, items, or other separable components. Competitive controls are permitted during official operation, but cannot block local or clearly unofficial use after shutdown. Paid currency and unusable items receive porting or money. Sections 504 and 507 implement wind-down and community hosting without making the original seller the operator.

Section 409 - Preservation of Personal Digital Property

Section 409 imposes risk-proportionate care for stored personal property, continuous export, and two-stage deletion notice with a one-step export control. Disputes, death, fiduciary requests, compromise, and lawful preservation requests trigger a 180-day hold. Data cannot be held hostage for debt, renewal, terms, or retaliation. The provision does not make sellers absolute insurers; ordinary safeguards and disclosed backup limits remain relevant. Section 804 specifies export quality.

Section 410 - Safety, Security, Privacy, Fraud, and Legal-Compliance Measures

Section 410 allows necessary restrictions but requires a contemporaneous account of the harm, causal evidence, alternatives, affected functions, duration, and remedy. Generalized risk, revenue preservation, uniformity, or seller-created insecurity is insufficient. Sensitive assessments may be protected in court or agency custody, while consumers receive enough explanation to contest. The restricting party bears proof and reviews every 90 days. Sections 107(d) and 609 provide the governing tests.

Section 411 - Prohibited Digital-Property Practices

Section 411 collects bright-line digital abuses: discretionary revocation, unrelated tracking or subscription conditions, delisting deletion, nominal-license evasion, surrender of backups, false intellectual-property claims, moderation designs that destroy property, obsolete identifier denials, restoration fees, and discrimination for using protected tools or services. The list complements, rather than narrows, sections 108 and 210. Verified forward-and-delete transfer under section 802 remains a valid reason to disable the transferor’s copy.

Section 412 - Allocation, Records, and Relation to Other Titles

Section 412 makes each actor perform the duties within its practical control and preserves owner-facing obligations despite private allocation. Mass actions affecting at least 1,000 owners require six-year decision and remedy records. The title operates cumulatively with sales, subscriptions, continuity, products, and transfer rules, and internal appeal is not a prerequisite to emergency relief. Section 1406 governs multi-actor responsibility and Title XIV supplies remedies.

Title V makes shutdown planning a condition of selling dependent products through tested escrow, financial assurance, objective triggers, successor rules, and a continuity ladder, with staged protection for secrets and security.

Section 501 - Continuity Duty and Covered Seller-Controlled Dependencies

Section 501 requires sellers that make core functions depend on accounts, servers, authentication, proprietary protocols, or cloud processing to inventory, fund, test, and disclose a continuity path. Avoidable remote dependency must be designed out where safe local methods work. Small entities may use standardized or insured alternatives but cannot brick products. The added seller-dependent-product definition supplies the threshold term used by sections 502 and 1603.

Section 502 - Continuity Escrow, Testing, and Financial Assurance

Section 502 requires current escrow of executable components, necessary source, keys, protocols, schemas, migration information, documentation, and a triggerable continuity license. Annual independent testing prevents empty deposits. Larger or safety-sensitive systems also maintain a quantified reserve, bond, insurance, or guaranty, while customer funds remain protected. Release is limited to what continuity needs. Sections 504, 510, and 1604 govern use, confidentiality, and approved alternatives.

Section 503 - End-of-Service Triggers and Notice

Section 503 activates continuity upon a shutdown decision, upstream-rights failure, sustained outage, insolvency, escrow failure, abandoned security, or comparable material threat. Planned events require 180-day multichannel notice; unforeseen events require notice within 72 hours after knowledge. Post-trigger sales need conspicuous disclosure and fresh consent, while ledgers, keys, builds, and evidence enter preservation status. Section 504 determines the substantive response.

Section 504 - Continuity Ladder and Owner Remedies

Section 504 orders remedies toward continued use: maintain service, transfer to a qualified successor, migrate interoperably, enable local operation, release private or community hosting, provide a comparable replacement, and only then pay money. Skipping a rung requires documented impossibility or unmitigable risk. Owners choose among comparable methods and may reject privacy- or cost-worsening replacements. Inflation-adjusted remedies punish knowing underfunding. Sections 107(d), 506, and 507 constrain implementation.

Section 505 - Company Failure, Abandonment, and Emergency Stewardship

Section 505 imposes immediate preservation and cooperation duties on those controlling a failed seller and permits a district court to appoint a short-term technical steward when mass loss is imminent. Good-faith employees who preserve materials despite contrary corporate instructions receive limited personal protection, and fiduciaries must evaluate continuity as value preservation. The safeguard excludes gross negligence and self-dealing. Sections 502, 504, and 509 provide the escrow and bankruptcy context.

Section 506 - End-of-Life Unlocking and Release

Section 506 requires discontinued authentication or cloud locks to yield through the minimum workable credential, interface, server component, or build. Free, documented packages go to two repositories, and credible receipts replace lost ledgers. Independent review may delay public release 90 days, but not a safe owner-specific unlock. Sections 510 and 809 protect sensitive release and circumvention.

Section 507 - Live-Service Wind-Down and Community Hosting

Section 507 preserves separable campaigns, creation tools, private sessions, paid content, and accessibility while allowing official events, rankings, moderation, and new production to end. Where a releasable server can preserve meaningful multiuser use, the seller provides a community package with entitlement, privacy, and abuse controls. Unofficial operation does not make the seller its publisher or employer. Preservation institutions receive controlled packages under section 1304 and Title 17 limits.

Section 508 - Successors, Asset Transfers, and Upstream Licensing

Section 508 prevents acquisitions or affiliate restructuring from erasing continuity. A buyer of the relevant line, brand, ledger, IP, or operations takes known duties, and related fragments are aggregated. Sellers must seek wind-down protection in renewed upstream contracts. Sections 209, 406, and 1406(e) allocate licensing, platform, and successor responsibility.

Section 509 - Bankruptcy and Statutory Trust Rules

Section 509 protects consumer property, stored-value trusts, escrow, and completed entitlements in bankruptcy notwithstanding general estate, stay, sale, and rejection provisions. Free-and-clear sales cannot erase protected rights; courts may expedite motions to prevent irreversible loss; unearned durable performance is treated as a consumer-deposit claim. The rule preserves greater section 365(n) rights. Counsel should conform the Title 11 language and section 507 priority interaction before codification.

Section 510 - Confidentiality, Cybersecurity, and Responsible Release

Section 510 secures escrow before a trigger and requires staged, minimum-necessary release after one. Unrelated secrets, keys for unaffected products, personal data, export-controlled material, and vulnerabilities may be redacted, compartmentalized, or entrusted to an intermediary. Security changes the method, not the continuity obligation, absent proof that no safe method exists. Recipients inherit safeguard and responsible-disclosure duties. Sections 502(f), 506(e), and 609 supply adjacent protections.

Section 511 - Legacy Systems and Transition

Section 511 directs pre-enactment systems to the phased registration, model compliance, and alternative-method provisions in sections 1601-1604. An approved substitute must preserve substantially equivalent value and prioritize safety, accessibility, housing, transportation, health, education, agriculture, and irreplaceable data. Transition flexibility cannot authorize a new removal, destroyed unlock, deleted ledger, or knowingly misleading sale. The section balances reliance interests without grandfathering future harmful conduct.

Section 512 - Limits and Enforcement

Section 512 clarifies that continuity does not require perpetual staffing, new expression, moderation, identical commercial service, unpurchased content, or disclosure of private data. It does require the highest practicable result in section 504. Courts may order preservation, escrow, minimal service, release, migration, replacement, refund, or stewardship. A deficient escrow in a mass event creates a rebuttable irreparable-harm presumption, facilitating prompt Title XIV relief without automatic final liability.

Title VI fixes a post-sale baseline of retained capabilities, local control, consent to material changes, version choice, and objective durability, subject to measurable, reviewable safety and cybersecurity exceptions.

Section 601 - Ownership of Purchased Hardware Capabilities

Section 601 includes enabled, paid, advertised, expected, or core capabilities in the hardware sale despite software implementation. Later metering, throttling, paywalls, or reactivation charges are barred. Severable disclosed new features and continuing remote resources remain chargeable, and optional dormant hardware is permitted with disclosure. Section 207 supplies the bundle rule.

Section 602 - Local Control and Offline Operation of Connected Products

Section 602 requires core smart-device functions to work through physical, local-network, or direct controls, with owner administration, backups, documented interfaces, and controller substitution. Inherently remote computation may remain cloud-dependent if disclosed, portable where feasible, and protected at shutdown. Safety- and habitability-related products need an outage mode, while fail-secure designs retain lawful emergency procedures. Sensitive data unnecessary to local operation cannot be demanded. Title V governs end of service.

Section 603 - Advertising and Commercial Messages in Purchased Products

Section 603 applies section 208 across firmware, operating systems, screens, notifications, assistants, control applications, and paid goods. New or materially more intrusive advertising requires revocable consent, and withdrawal restores the prior baseline without a fee. Prepaid subscription terms cannot be changed midstream, while renewals require section 305 consent. Essential safety, accessibility, repair, cancellation, privacy, local-control, and property-vault surfaces remain entirely protected from advertising obstruction.

Section 604 - Objective Durability and Minimum Support Periods

Section 604 pairs reasonable useful life with five-, seven-, ten-, or fifteen-year category and price floors; digital purchases receive nonexpiring access plus support then continuity. Unit-specific floors and interim battery metrics prevent inventory aging from shortening protection. Agencies may extend, but only narrowly shorten for proven perishability or safety. Section 1608 adjusts price thresholds.

Section 605 - Security, Functional, and Compatibility Support

Section 605 requires free material security fixes, disclosed support dates, correction of seller-caused core failures, maintained activation, accessibility, export, and controlled-interface compatibility. Sellers cannot force a new model, plan, service, or proprietary consumable as the price of support. Ordinary out-of-warranty labor may remain chargeable. Support expiration permits cessation of new assistance, not degradation; 180-day notice and Title V continuity then apply. Section 604 defines the period.

Section 606 - Remote Actions, Change Logs, and Owner Control

Section 606 requires affirmative consent before a remote action materially changes a core function, except for necessary security measures, requested support, or a particularized order. Preinstallation logs disclose functional, interoperability, privacy, resource, rollback, and security effects; undisclosed effects presumptively lack consent. Emergency patches receive a 72-hour notice window. Updates should preserve settings, automations, accessibility, third-party interoperability, and privacy choices. Sections 607-609 govern rollback and emergency justification.

Section 607 - Software Version Choice, Deferral, Reinstallation, and Rollback

Section 607 permits deferral, reinstallation, and rollback and requires the current plus two prior materially distinct supported builds. Architecture changes must preserve a corrected legacy branch or interoperable migration for stranded hardware, accessibility, or workflows. Section 609 permits isolating a proven vulnerable build from seller networks, but safe local use, backups, repair sources, and export remain.

Section 608 - Artificial Degradation and Planned Obsolescence

Section 608 prohibits intentional or reckless shortening of useful life to induce replacement, service, subscription, or consumable purchases. Covered conduct includes undisclosed throttling, capacity loss, quality reduction, false empty conditions, compatibility withdrawal, repair impairment, arbitrary counters, and bricking decisions. Condition-based protective management remains lawful only under section 609, with disclosure, repair, and restoration. Replacing a deteriorated component must restore prior performance unless an independent defect is proven.

Section 609 - Measurable Safety, Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Legal Exceptions

Section 609 is the principal safety valve. The seller must prove material harm probability, risk reduction, tailoring, no sufficient alternative, noncommercial purpose, and an owner remedy, with 90-day reassessment. Critical threats permit immediate action followed by notice, cure, and independent review. Specific sector law controls actual conflicts. Sections 107(d), 410, and 1505 reinforce the standard.

Section 610 - Durability Disclosures, Testing, and Records

Section 610 requires definite support, security, parts, and cloud-dependency dates plus battery, consumable, repair, and shutdown information before sale. “As available” cannot substitute for a date, and “lifetime” claims require ordinary-use testing. Sellers retain design assumptions, failures, updates, support decisions, and safety records through the support period plus six years. Known early common failures trigger notice and corrective relief. Section 1506 supplies comparative testing and the durability index.

Section 611 - Remedies and Construction

Section 611 lets owners choose restoration, restriction removal, prior-version access, repair, replacement, life extension, or refund alongside Title XIV relief. Knowing continued disablement may become a daily violation after notice, subject to documented safety cure. Durability preserves the purchased baseline, not wholly new features or universal future-platform support. Sections 407 and 605 cover seller-controlled compatibility breaks.

Title VII treats repair as ownership, competition, affordability, accessibility, and waste policy, requiring equal access to repair inputs while preserving proven sector-specific safety and certification controls.

Section 701 - Right to Diagnose, Maintain, Repair, and Modify

Section 701 protects owner and independent-provider diagnosis, maintenance, refurbishment, improvement, and modification, and prohibits contracts or technical designs that materially burden lawful repair when a secure alternative exists. Manufacturers need not warrant independent work or damage it causes, but remain responsible for unrelated defects and cannot disable a product merely because it was opened. Theft, infringement, data intrusion, emissions defeat, and unlawful unsafe operation remain outside the title.

Section 702 - Parts, Tools, Documentation, Diagnostics, and Software

Section 702 requires parity access to manuals, schematics, diagnostics, calibration, pairing, parts, firmware, security fixes, prior versions, activation, and training throughout section 604’s period. Ordinary documentation is free and open; specialized goods may be sold on fair terms excluding lost aftermarket revenue. Delivery deadlines and nondiscriminatory shortage allocation prevent constructive denial. When production ends, necessary fabrication information replaces unavailable parts, subject to genuinely sensitive information safeguards.

Section 703 - Serialization, Parts Pairing, Activation, and Warnings

Section 703 bars serialization and cryptographic pairing that blocks a compatible part, reduces performance, prevents restoration, charges owners for free authorized-network functions, or displays misleading warnings. Pairing and calibration must be owner-accessible, though specialized hardware may carry a fair price. One neutral, dismissible provenance notice is permitted. Biometric secrets, theft locks, sterility, and dose-critical calibration receive only a section 609-tailored exception with a safe repair path.

Section 704 - Third-Party, Refilled, Remanufactured, and Recycled Consumables

Section 704 protects compatible aftermarket, refilled, remanufactured, and recycled inputs against firmware, chip, account, subscription, service, or warranty discrimination. Products may report objectively measured condition or a specific substantiated hazard but cannot manufacture premature depletion or collect unnecessary purchase data. The seller must prove item-specific causation before denying coverage. Compatibility specifications are available on fair terms, while proprietary formulas and processes unnecessary for compatibility remain protected.

Section 705 - Warranty Protection and Magnuson-Moss Amendment

Section 705 replaces blanket “warranty void” practices with component-specific causation. Coverage may exclude harm proved to result from negligent repair, alteration, or an incompatible part, but unrelated defects remain covered. The section amends Magnuson-Moss to reach technological tying and assign the causation burden to the warrantor; waivers are narrow, public, and biennially reviewed. Counsel should verify insertion points against the then-current text of 15 U.S.C. 2302(c).

Section 706 - Sector Safety; No Categorical Loophole

Section 706 preserves specific safety, emissions, cybersecurity, sanitation, licensing, and professional rules while rejecting blanket exclusions for vehicles, medical devices, aviation, rail, maritime systems, firearms, or other regulated sectors. Role-based credentials, logs, calibration, certification, and return-to-service controls are permitted when equally available and section 609-tailored. The rule protects lawful maintenance without authorizing emissions defeat, unlawful conversion, insecure disclosure, or practice beyond an independent provider’s legal qualifications.

Section 707 - Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Repair Data

Section 707 limits repair tools to necessary data, requires owner authorization and secure deletion or return, and protects good-faith testing and responsible disclosure from being treated as malicious. Manufacturers cannot remotely activate cameras, microphones, precise location, file scans, or control sessions without contemporaneous consent or lawful authority. Misused credentials may be individually revoked with notice and appeal, without excluding another provider. Section 811 supplies the narrow CFAA safe harbor.

Section 708 - Independent Provider Duties and Nondiscrimination

Section 708 denies repairers immunity for negligence, fraud, privacy violations, defective work, licensing breaches, or unsafe conduct, and does not make manufacturers their principals or warrantors. Manufacturers nevertheless cannot discriminate for competition, criticism, organizing, or lawful aftermarket use. Accurate compatible, repaired, and remanufactured labels remain protected; false original status and concealed hazards remain actionable.

Section 709 - Intellectual Property, Environment, and Competition

Section 709 limits compelled disclosure to information necessary for diagnosis, compatibility, calibration, security, or repair and permits confidential delivery for a specific material risk. Title VIII governs copyright access controls. Hazardous-substance and waste rules continue to govern safe handling but cannot become unsupported manufacturer monopolies. Compliance creates no antitrust immunity, preserving challenges to coordinated aftermarket restraints. Sections 703, 704, and 809 address the technical restraints most likely to overlap.

Section 710 - Records, Burdens, and Remedies

Section 710 requires long-term records of repair materials, prices, authorized-provider terms, pairing and warranty denials, safety assessments, and parts availability. The restricting party bears the exception burden; withholding assessments or authorized-network material supports a rebuttable discrimination presumption. Courts may compel tools, activation, accurate warnings, warranty restoration, correction, replacement, and extended support, with each unjustified completed refusal separately actionable. Title XIV supplies damages and public enforcement.

Section 711 - Patent Exhaustion, Permissible Repair, and Reconstruction

Section 711 exhausts patent rights after an authorized domestic or foreign disposition despite post-sale restrictions and protects maintenance, refurbishment, compatible unpatented components and consumables, and restored capacity. Constructing a materially new patented article or independently patented replacement remains actionable; the patentee bears the reconstruction burden. Counsel should place the provision in title 35 and conform section 271 terminology. Section 103 supplies the Patent Clause basis.

Title VIII restores transfer, lending, inheritance, migration, and ecosystem choice for digital property through a one-owner/one-usable-copy model and targeted copyright amendments, while excluding intrusion and public distribution.

Section 801 - Right to Transfer, Resell, Give, and Lend

Section 801 transfers the device together with durable entitlements, paid capabilities, firmware, transferable warranties, and documentation, including reset, data removal, new-owner activation, and continued repair support. Resale cannot trigger degradation or a reactivation charge. Free, prompt, privacy-preserving anti-fraud verification remains permitted, and lawful security interests and stolen-property rules remain intact. Sections 802 and 803 address digital mechanics and succession; Titles IX-XII govern creditor interests.

Section 802 - Verified Digital Transfer and Temporary Lending

Section 802 authorizes digital transfer only when the transferor retains no simultaneously usable copy after completion. Platforms must provide an open method that moves keys and metadata, disables the source only after confirmation, reverses failures, and issues receipts without repurchase or royalties. Temporary lending suspends the owner’s access. If the seller disappears, a reasonable forward-and-delete system may substitute. Sections 807-811 remove copyright, anticircumvention, and computer-access barriers.

Section 803 - Inheritance, Fiduciaries, and Legacy Access

Section 803 places durable digital interests, paid value, and transferable account assets under ordinary succession law. Platform legacy tools yield to valid wills, trusts, and orders. Fiduciaries receive preservation, inventories, transfer, export, and stopped recurring charges within deadlines, subject to communications law and third-party privacy. Section 309 handles subscription termination at death.

Section 804 - Export of Personal Digital Property and Account Value

Section 804 requires continuous, free export of user files, saves, settings, records, entitlement manifests, balances, accessibility configurations, and necessary metadata in open, usable, verifiable formats. Ordinary exports complete within seven days, complex ones within thirty, with manifests and error correction. Copyrighted third-party content travels as a lawful copy or entitlement token rather than unrestricted redistribution. Exit penalties and retaliatory delay are prohibited. Sections 310 and 409 supply preservation windows.

Section 805 - Interoperability and Protection Against Ecosystem Lock-In

Section 805 requires stable, documented, nondiscriminatory interfaces where seller control is material to use, repair, transfer, or migration. Owners may switch controllers, clouds, stores, repairers, hosts, accessories, or compatible platforms without degraded performance, support, or data. Open standards receive preference and breaking changes require 180-day notice, testing, and overlap. Privacy, credentials, and necessary trade secrets remain protected, while rate limits must satisfy section 609.

Section 806 - Privacy, Security, and Transfer Records

Section 806 makes owner direction, minimization, and risk-appropriate encryption prerequisites for export, transfer, lending, and fiduciary tools. Transferred data cannot be repurposed for advertising without separate consent. Shared records and relationships move only consistently with other people’s rights, using metadata rather than disclosable content where necessary. Receipts remain for six years, but exported content does not. The nontracking proof rule complements section 204’s privacy-preserving durable receipt.

Section 807 - Amendment to Section 109 of Title 17

Section 807 creates a digital first-sale mechanism while preserving section 109(b)'s commercial-rental limits. Owners may retain reasonable, controlled personal archival, restoration, accessibility, migration, verification, and disaster-recovery copies, but may not create public or materially excess use and must delete retained copies after disposition. Time-limited noncommercial lending suspends the owner's use. RHOP ownership defeats nonnegotiated license labels without transferring copyright or authorizing an unlicensed public performance.

Section 808 - Amendment to Section 117 of Title 17

Section 808 expands program-owner copying and adaptation to diagnosis, repair, security testing, accessibility, interoperability, backup, migration, verified transfer, local operation, and service cessation. Copies may serve only the lawful purpose and travel with the machine or entitlement or be destroyed when no longer needed. RHOP ownership defeats label-based exclusion without authorizing independent infringement. Section 809 supplies the corresponding circumvention and tool protection.

Section 809 - Permanent Amendment to Section 1201 of Title 17

Section 809 adds new section 1201(l), a permanent exception covering owners, authorized helpers, and tools used for lawful repair, accessibility, research, interoperability, backup, transfer, preservation, version choice, local control, and continuity. Dual use, competition, and displaced contract terms do not defeat it. Anti-infringement safeguards remain required; private data, unpurchased works, and infringement remain excluded. It works with sections 506, 702, and 808.

Section 810 - Amendment to Section 301 of Title 17

Section 810 prevents Copyright Act preemption from erasing federal, State, local, Tribal, or common-law ownership, warranty, repair, functionality, access, data, value, competition, and shutdown claims containing a qualitatively different duty or protected interest. It expressly saves RHOP remedies while respecting the exclusive-rights field for equivalent copyright claims. Counsel should verify placement as new subsection (g) and harmonize it with section 1605’s general federal-law savings rule.

Section 811 - Narrow Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Safe Harbor

Section 811 protects good-faith work on a computer, device, account, program, or data owned by the person or accessed with owner authorization for enumerated ownership purposes. It excludes fraud, extortion, material harm, unauthorized third-party-system entry, and acquisition of private data or trade secrets. Contract breach alone does not establish criminal authorization boundaries. The narrow design protects repair and security research without opening seller servers. Section 707 supplies repair-data duties.

Section 812 - Construction, Implementation, and Enforcement

Section 812 confirms that Title VIII does not authorize piracy, excess copies, theft of service, account intrusion, or privacy violations. NIST and the Commission may recognize open technical methods but cannot require universal tracking, centralized identity, or original-seller approval. Missing seller tools do not extinguish rights exercised reasonably and in good faith. Section 1602(e) uniformly places sections 801-812 on the 18-month schedule.

Title IX treats ownership-directed rent-to-own arrangements as credit by substance, making price and equity visible while limiting cost, disabling, repossession, and bankruptcy loss; true short rentals remain excluded.

Section 901 - Definitions

Section 901 defines an independently verifiable cash price, broad creditor responsibility, essential property, ownership-directed transactions, and remote disabling technology. Presumptions capture plans marketed or economically structured to culminate in ownership, while a fixed nonrenewing rental of 90 days or less remains excluded. The independent price backstop prevents merchants from hiding finance charges in inflated “cash” prices. Section 909 identifies reliable valuation sources and model calculations.

Section 902 - Ownership-Directed Transactions Treated as Credit Sales

Section 902 treats ownership-directed arrangements as credit sales under TILA, ECOA, FCRA, the Consumer Financial Protection Act, and RHOP regardless of cancellation rights, State lease labels, fee names, or retained title. Assignees take subject to claims and defenses, and controlling marketplaces share liability based on knowledge and preventability. A true rental remains permissible. Section 903 supplies credit disclosures and section 910 preserves stronger State rules.

Section 903 - Shopping-Stage and Contract Disclosures

Section 903 requires periodic-payment advertising to show equally prominent cash price, total payments, APR, finance charge, item condition, early-purchase terms, fees, and disabling or tracking technology. Before obligation, consumers receive a durable agreement and continuously updated amortization-style ledger. Manipulated cash prices are unlawful unless itemized services justify the difference. Marketing-language and accessibility parity prevent oral translation from replacing durable disclosure. Section 901 defines the price benchmark.

Section 904 - Price, Equity, Early Purchase, Cure, and Reinstatement

Section 904 caps the all-in APR at 36 percent, preserves lower local caps, and limits household-goods total payments. Payments build nonforfeitable equitable ownership beyond fair rental value, with return, transfer, or sale options after substantial equity. Consumers may buy early without penalty, receive a 30-day cure plus defined hardship extension, and reinstate after repossession. Essential property gets longer protection. Sections 905 and 906 govern disabling and taking.

Section 905 - Remote Disabling and Location Tracking

Section 905 treats remote disabling of vehicles and essential property as repossession requiring judicial process and prohibits unsafe, disputed, premature, or server-failure-based shutdowns. Vehicle devices need advance warnings, emergency overrides, fail-operational behavior, and preservation of safety systems. Location data is limited to lawful collateral recovery and cannot feed advertising or brokers. Narrow imminent-injury recalls remain lawful with free repair. Section 1505 governs agency emergency orders.

Section 906 - Uniform Minimum Repossession Protections

Section 906 requires current verification of lien, assignment, default, payment history, notices, and legal restraints before repossession. Essential property needs judicial process; other self-help must comply with State law, cure rights, and strict peace and privacy constraints. Personal effects and data receive prompt return and export. Sales require notice, market exposure, surplus return, and a deficiency-price floor. Creditors are strictly responsible for agents. Section 904 supplies cure and reinstatement.

Section 907 - Warranties, Title, and Satisfaction

Section 907 prevents financing or prior rental from shortening warranty coverage, requires a limited condition warranty on used property, and makes product-wide coverage travel with title. Within ten business days after payoff, the creditor must convey clean title, release liens, deactivate tracking and disabling controls, and provide local-use credentials. Daily statutory damages deter administrative hostage-taking. Section 801 governs ordinary transfer, and section 905 regulates disabling before satisfaction.

Section 908 - Bankruptcy Ownership Floor

Section 908 treats remote disabling and credential revocation as stay-covered efforts to control estate property or collect a claim. It adds national minimum exemptions for a vehicle, household goods, tools, health aids, digital property, and vested ownership equity, while preserving greater exemptions. Ownership-directed plans are secured transactions rather than leases and remain curable in reorganization. Counsel should conform amendments to current 11 U.S.C. §§ 507, 522, and chapter-plan provisions.

Section 909 - Rulemaking; Model Forms; Databases

Section 909 directs the CFPB, consulting the FTC, to create anti-manipulation price and APR methods, valuation sources, model notices, seven-year records, and public aggregate repossession and disabling data within 18 months. Agency adjustments to protections require substantial evidence that ownership increases without material loss; technical complexity alone cannot justify exemption. The section makes implementation comparable across markets while section 1609 keeps self-executing duties effective if rules are late.

Section 910 - Enforcement; Relation to Other Law

Section 910 makes Title IX federal consumer financial law and an FTC-enforceable Act, while incorporating Title XIV’s State and private remedies. Stronger rate, cure, reinstatement, judicial repossession, and exemption laws remain intact. UCC attachment, perfection, and priority generally continue, but Article 9 remedies must satisfy RHOP’s substantive and procedural floor. This division respects commercial-law infrastructure while preventing it from overriding essential-property protections in sections 904-906.

Title X applies equity preservation to contracts for deed, manufactured communities, heirs property, tax sales, valuation, and foreclosure, while using tailored federal nexuses and preserving stronger local property law.

Section 1001 - Definitions and Scope

Section 1001 defines contracts for deed by substance, a flexible first-generation homebuyer category, manufactured communities, democratic resident associations, residential heirs property, and the responsible Secretary. It also identifies the distinct commerce, federal-credit, property, and assistance nexuses for later provisions. The first-generation definition avoids disqualifying families whose prior interests never supplied secure occupancy. Counsel should verify Public Law 119-101 and 42 U.S.C. cross-references at introduction.

Section 1002 - Contracts for Deed Are Mortgages in Substance

Section 1002 treats installment land contracts and disguised lease-options as dwelling-secured consumer credit, gives buyers equitable title, and reduces retained legal title to security. Advance mortgage disclosures, title, appraisal, inspection, recording, escrow, and habitability duties apply. Default requires judicial foreclosure, cure, loss mitigation, and full equity credit; rent recharacterization and self-help eviction are void. Existing agreements are covered prospectively at enforcement. Section 1007 supplies complementary proof requirements.

Section 1003 - Manufactured-Home Community Purchase Opportunity

Section 1003 gives residents notice, diligence material, an exclusive offer period, financing time, and a matching right. A continuous standstill bars closing, extraordinary encumbrance, asset stripping, displacement, and evasive restructuring until every applicable period expires; incomplete notice delays commencement, and courts may toll or enjoin. Owners retain a bona fide arm's-length price and defined exceptions. Retaliation is prohibited, knowing transferees take subject, and nonqualifying closings are voidable.

Section 1004 - Heirs Property and Family Title Security

Section 1004 funds probate, survey, quiet-title, succession, insurance, mediation, and representation while avoiding displacement of occupants. Grant priority rewards Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act safeguards: verified notice, appraisal, cotenant buyout, partition in kind, open-market sale, and anti-speculation rules. Federally assisted property must meet the floor, and agencies accept alternative ownership evidence during incomplete probate. The program complements, rather than waits for, Public Law 119-101’s study.

Section 1005 - Fair Tax-Foreclosure Process and Surplus

Section 1005 requires layered notice, affordable cure, hardship relief, redemption, valuation, market exposure, a reserve price, and automatic prompt surplus return in federal sales. Comparable State procedures arise only as a clear, related condition on voluntarily accepted future assistance, with an opt-out preserving unrelated funds. The statutory process intentionally exceeds constitutional minima without redefining them. Section 1607 preserves federal applications if a particular grant condition is held insufficiently related.

Section 1006 - Valuation Integrity and Reconsideration

Section 1006 gives every dwelling-secured applicant a free reconsideration process before valuation-driven adverse action, including inputs, factual challenge, independent review, and a second valuation after material error. Protected traits and neighborhood demographics cannot drive comparable selection or adjustments, and models require outcome testing. Appraisers receive independence and anti-retaliation protection. The section extends Public Law 119-101’s federally backed mortgage procedure without disturbing its education and database work.

Section 1007 - Foreclosure Authority, Documentation, and Loss Mitigation

Section 1007 conditions home foreclosure on complete authority, payment and default records, and servicing compliance. Robo-signing and dual tracking are actionable. Borrowers receive notice, one contact, modification review, optional mediation, and a 120-day floor. Defective authority requires dismissal and fee restoration; knowing false filings support enhancement. Section 1002 applies parallel rules to contracts for deed.

Section 1008 - Ownership Opportunity Fund

Section 1008 authorizes ten years of targeted appropriations for first-generation buyers, community land trusts, shared-equity entities, manufactured-community acquisition, heirs-property work, counseling, foreclosure prevention, and tax-sale cure. Assistance is means-tested, generally forgivable over five years, and protected during death, disability, military, violence, disaster, or eligible inheritance. Independent valuation, counseling, inspection, and stewardship prevent seller capture and price inflation. Section 1508 avoids duplicating these amounts.

Section 1009 - Coordination With the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act

Section 1009 expressly leaves Public Law 119-101’s institutional-investor restriction, definitions, exceptions, reports, and enforcement untouched. Agencies may use common applications and compliance files and layer compatible funds without double reimbursement. RHOP’s resident purchase, title clearing, and first-generation assistance fill distinct gaps, while existing affordability, land-trust, renter-first-look, appraisal, and investor rules continue. Counsel should update the coordination clause if that statute is amended before introduction.

Section 1010 - Enforcement and State-Law Savings

Section 1010 sends the principal contract-for-deed, community-purchase, valuation, and foreclosure duties to Title XIV and gives affected buyers, associations, owners, applicants, and public enforcers the section 1404 remedies, including specific performance and applicable statutory minimums. It expressly bars double compensation for one injury. General estates, recording, land use, taxation, marital property, and title remain local except for express federal floors; stronger local protections survive.

Title XI separates criminal punishment from revenue-driven confiscation through conviction, nexus, prompt hearing, government burdens, innocent-owner and essential-property safeguards, revenue neutrality, and narrow law-enforcement exceptions.

Section 1101 - Conviction Required for Federal Forfeiture

Section 1101 generally permits final forfeiture only after conviction and proof beyond a reasonable doubt that property is personally obtained proceeds or was knowingly and substantially used in the offense. Each claimant may contest ownership, nexus, innocence, and proportionality. Civil proceedings without conviction require clear and convincing proof of narrow contraband, unavailability, unidentified-proceeds, or knowing-consent circumstances. Acquittal or declination ordinarily compels return, and diversion is not a conviction.

Section 1102 - Warrant, Receipt, and Prompt Retention Hearing

Section 1102 requires a property-specific warrant absent defined contraband, incident-to-arrest, or exigent circumstances and rejects cash, travel, an uncorroborated canine alert, proximity, or nonconsent as standalone probable cause. Owners receive rapid receipts and notice. On request, a magistrate holds a seven-day hearing - or 48-hour hearing for essential property - where government must justify custody as the least restrictive means. Filing and trial deadlines prevent indefinite seizure.

Section 1103 - Government Burdens; Innocent Owners; Counsel

Section 1103 puts forfeitability, nexus, traceability, proportionality, and absence of innocence on government. Owners need not prove a negative before the initial showing; knowing consent, material participation, or willful blindness requires realistic prevention ability. Indigent claimants receive counsel for homes, sole vehicles, livelihood assets, valuable property, related criminal exposure, or justice needs. Fifth Amendment invocation yields no adverse inference, and discovery may be stayed without automatic continued custody.

Section 1104 - Statutory Proportionality and Essential Property

Section 1104 caps forfeiture at the least of proceeds, authorized fine, proven instrumental portion, or a proportional amount. Innocent homes are protected; essential property of a convicted person may be taken only for specified grave offenses when lesser assets cannot satisfy restitution. Juries decide disputed facts on request, courts review proportionality, and section 1106 puts victims first.

Section 1105 - Federal Adoption and Equitable-Sharing Anti-Evasion

Section 1105 bars Federal adoption used to evade stronger local conviction, process, revenue, or reporting rules, requiring genuine Federal involvement and prosecution. Proceeds cannot return to participating agencies. Voluntary future equitable-sharing funds may require equivalent safeguards, but unrelated aid remains untouched. Counsel should conform the listed fund statutes and joint-task-force implementation. Section 1106 governs proceeds.

Section 1106 - Revenue Neutrality; Victims First

Section 1106 directs net proceeds, after valid liens, innocent-owner return, and victim restitution, to the Treasury general fund rather than enforcement budgets. Storage, counsel, management, and disposition costs must be paid through advance appropriations independent of anticipated seizures. This removes the fiscal incentive to seize while preserving victim restoration and Congress’s appropriations authority. Section 1413 extends the same anti-self-funding principle to civil penalties recovered under RHOP.

Section 1107 - Care, Return, Repair, Interest, and Loss of Use

Section 1107 imposes an inventory, insurance, maintenance, and security duty during custody, including protection of digital credentials and data. When forfeiture fails, government must return property within seven days, clear seizure-created flags, and cannot demand a release. A district-court action may recover repair or replacement, interest, towing, substitute transportation, lost use and income, and fees under an express sovereign-immunity waiver. Section 1102’s early hearing minimizes those losses.

Section 1108 - Waivers, Settlements, Transparency, and Audit

Section 1108 makes abandonment or waiver valid only through a separate informed instrument, free from unrelated prosecution or detention threats, revocable for fourteen days, and proved voluntary by clear and convincing evidence. Agencies publish quarterly anonymized seizure and disposition data, and Inspectors General plus GAO conduct recurring disparity and incentive audits. The design responds to invisible roadside waivers while safeguarding personal information. Section 1412 provides the broader enforcement-data infrastructure.

Section 1109 - Amendment to CAFRA; Construction

Section 1109 makes CAFRA yield where Title XI is more protective while preserving contraband, unlawfully possessed weapons, and court-authorized evidence; copies or preservation orders should substitute where feasible. Stronger local restrictions survive. Counsel item: subsection (a) states a conforming command, so counsel should prepare explicit amendments to 18 U.S.C. 983 and related provisions. Section 1605 preserves other consistent law.

Title XII treats paid platform value and custodial assets as property, requiring nonexpiration, redemption, segregation, reserves, transfer, and insolvency protection while preserving specialized financial, gaming, tax, sanctions, and escheat regimes.

Section 1201 - Definitions and Regulatory Boundaries

Section 1201 distinguishes custodial digital property, paid stored value, platform credit, genuine promotional value, and the responsible issuer. It expressly excludes deposits and specialized securities, commodities, and benefit-plan property already subject to defined regimes and avoids deciding whether an asset is money, a security, commodity, deposit, derivative, or controllable record. More specific prudential and market-integrity law controls genuine conflicts; this title supplies the consumer-ownership floor.

Section 1202 - Purchased Value Does Not Expire or Erode

Section 1202 bans expiration and dormancy, maintenance, inquiry, closure, redemption, or reactivation fees on paid value; only the access device may expire if replacement is free. Mixed balances must be spent in the consumer-favorable order, and the issuer bears proof that expiring value was truly promotional and adequately disclosed. New EFTA section 915(e), notwithstanding subsections (b) through (d), makes the nonexpiration rule durable.

Section 1203 - Redemption, Refunds, and Transfer

Section 1203 requires no-minimum redemption to the original payment method, alternative payment, or cash for small balances, measured by unused purchase value rather than speculative markets. Shutdown or material narrowing triggers advance notice and no-fee refund that survives dissolution and licensing failure. Transfer is protected subject to specifically tailored fraud, sanctions, tax, gaming, securities, and money-transmission controls. A documented reviewable legal need can delay, but not silently defeat, redemption.

Section 1204 - Customer Ownership, Segregation, and Use of Custodial Property

Section 1204 declares customer-allocated digital property beneficially owned despite omnibus keys or ledgers. Custody means reconciliation, segregation, one-for-one sufficiency, security, disclosure, transferability, and no rehypothecation. A consumer may choose lending, staking, or investment only through a separately executed, operationally distinct risk account that cannot count toward any reserve and cannot be activated by default or dark pattern. Internal unauthorized transactions receive provisional credit; section 1205 governs insolvency and shortfalls.

Section 1205 - Insolvency and Successor Obligations

Section 1205 excludes identifiable customer and trust property from the bankruptcy estate, requires liquid reserves equal to paid balances, allocates unavoidable pooled shortfalls pro rata without erasing remedies, and binds successors unless refunds are funded at closing. Section 509 supplies parallel continuity treatment. Counsel should integrate the statutory trust and title 11 language with applicable prudential custody regimes.

Section 1206 - Account Termination and Conduct Separation

Section 1206 carries the account-property principle into stored value and custody. Suspension for conduct cannot erase unrelated balances or assets; a restricted portal must permit export or refund. Only property specifically affected by a lawful chargeback, lien, sanctions block, documented fraud investigation, or court order may be held. Contractual penalties require actual loss and proportionality. Sections 403-405 provide notice, vault, and sanction procedures for the broader account relationship.

Section 1207 - Disclosures, Records, and Audits

Section 1207 requires pre-issuance disclosure of redemption, transfer, custody, pooling, fees, claimed legal classification, and shutdown treatment; durable receipts and seven-year transaction and reserve records; and annual independent reserve and reconciliation examination. Public attestations reveal material deficiencies without exposing customer information. These controls make sections 1202-1205 auditable and allow consumers to distinguish stored value from uninsured speculative custody before payment.

Section 1208 - Unclaimed Property, Tax, Gaming, and Intellectual-Property Savings

Section 1208 preserves State escheat only when full balances remain perpetually claimable without charge, preventing issuer windfalls. It disclaims authorization for gambling, regulated finance, tax or sanctions evasion, or expanded IP rights. Unlawful virtual items may be removed only with lawful equivalent value or refund and preserved evidence. Section 109 saves stronger State protection.

Section 1209 - Rulemaking, Enforcement, and State Law

Section 1209 assigns coordinated rules to the CFPB and FTC for stored value and to the appropriate banking, securities, commodities, and financial-crime regulators for custody. Coordination should avoid duplicate capital rules without leaving classification gaps. Title XIV enforcement remains available for express ownership, disclosure, redemption, and anti-confiscation duties, while specialized regulators retain prudential methodology. Stronger local trust, reserve, redemption, and insolvency protections, plus consistent financial regulation, survive.

Title XIII uses Federal purchasing and assistance to reward life-cycle ownership, open exit, repair, reuse, and preservation, while allowing documented mission, safety, cybersecurity, and national-security exceptions.

Section 1301 - Federal Ownership-First Procurement Policy

Section 1301 requires major acquisitions to price renewals, repair, migration, dependencies, residual value, and failure risk over the intended service life. Solicitations must identify the ownership form and measurable exit rights, with preference for local operation and open interfaces. A senior official may document a mission-based exception, but not merely cite a lower introductory price. Section 1302 supplies enforceable clauses.

Section 1302 - Required Contract Clauses

Section 1302 directs the FAR Council to make ownership representations material, bar unilateral adverse changes, require continuity, repair, SBOM, migration, escrow, flow-down, and specified remedies, and prevent clickwrap from displacing negotiated terms. Legacy contracts receive risk-based clauses at renewal or material modification. The continuity ladder in Title V supplies the operational baseline; section 1301 governs acquisition choice.

Section 1303 - Federal Data and Digital Property Exit Rights

Section 1303 prevents a provider from holding Government data hostage during a fee dispute and requires continuous, secure, nonproprietary export plus a complete response within 30 days. Mission-essential systems undergo annual restoration testing, with representative samples allowed when full tests endanger operations. Lawful retention and Federal records duties limit deletion. Section 1302 embeds these rights in contracts.

Section 1304 - Libraries, Archives, Schools, and Cultural Memory

Section 1304 conditions federally assisted institutional “sales” on durable access, preservation capability, migration, removal notice, and disclosed educational-use rights. Secure preservation copying is limited to noninfringing uses where fair-market replacement is unavailable; collective repositories may serve only acquired access for unavailable works. It neither compels publication nor expands audiences. Sections 507 and 807-809 provide complementary continuity and copyright tools.

Section 1305 - Federally Funded and Federally Assisted Products

Section 1305 permits agencies to condition new assistance for covered technology on repairability, publicly funded interfaces, continuity, accessibility, and reuse. Spending-clause safeguards require unambiguous advance notice and a program relationship, bind knowing assignees, and protect nonassuming employees. Individual relief exists only when the grant expressly creates it. Counsel should review subsection (d)’s section 1406 reference alongside the intended remedial provision.

Section 1306 - Federal Device Reuse and Donation

Section 1306 makes secure repair, refurbishment, transfer, sale, or donation the Federal default before recycling or destruction. GSA and NIST must address sanitization, obsolete locks, transferable licenses, remaining support, and priority community recipients. Vendors cannot demand destruction solely to protect a business model when sanitization or harvesting works. Section 707’s security rules and section 1303’s records limits remain relevant.

Section 1307 - Procurement Transparency and Accountability

Section 1307 requires large purchasing agencies to disclose subscription-versus-license spending, exceptions, shutdown costs, reuse outcomes, and vendor recoveries in a nonclassified dashboard. Inspectors general may examine lock-in, destruction, and continuity compliance. The $100 million reporting threshold keeps the regime focused on material portfolios, while lawful classified information remains protected. Sections 1301 and 1306 define the reported decisions.

Title XIV coordinates Federal, State, Tribal, and private enforcement, prioritizing restoration and compensation, scaling sanctions to culpability, preventing procedural waiver, and protecting genuinely passive intermediaries.

Section 1401 - Unlawful Acts

Section 1401 makes violation of the Act, a bounded rule, or an enforceable order unlawful. Restoration, refund, actual injury, and prospective relief generally do not require intent; culpability instead controls penalties and enhancement. FTC, CFPB, prudential, and sector jurisdiction is allocated without leaving common carriers, nonprofits, or cooperatives exempt when selling. No implementing rule is prerequisite to enforcing a self-executing duty.

Section 1402 - Federal Public Enforcement

Section 1402 gives the Commission investigative and administrative tools and authorizes DOJ to seek restoration, unlocking, specific performance, restitution, attributable net-profit disgorgement, and section 1405 penalties. Sector agencies act within assigned expertise, but coordination cannot suspend rights or duplicate recovery. Common-law-like legal penalties and damages proceed in Article III court with a jury; genuinely public regulatory matters may remain administrative.

Section 1403 - State, Territorial, and Tribal Public Enforcement

Section 1403 authorizes State, territorial, and Tribal public enforcers to protect residents and sovereign interests in State or Federal court. Ten-day Federal notice yields to urgency, and Federal intervention follows ordinary removal rules. Courts coordinate distinct sovereign claims to prevent inconsistent injunctions and double recovery, not extinguish them. Authorizing Tribal enforcement expressly preserves Tribal immunity. Sections 109 and 1405 define the floor and remedies.

Section 1404 - Private Right of Action

Section 1404 permits injured owners, consumers, qualifying small entities, fiduciaries, and representative nonprofits to obtain restoration, actual and foreseeable consequential loss, elected statutory minimums, and equitable relief. Higher amounts apply only where another section expressly supplies them, avoiding an undefined category. Concrete injury is required for damages; clear-and-convincing culpability supports enhancement, class awards remain proportional yet remove unlawful gain, and defendant fees require bad faith. Section 1407 governs cure.

Section 1405 - Civil Penalties and Restitution

Section 1405 authorizes public penalties keyed to affected transactions, knowing daily noncompliance, or three times gain or loss, subject to constitutional proportionality and enumerated culpability factors. A first nonwillful paperwork or interface lapse by a microbusiness can avoid penalties only after complete, harmless cure. Consumers receive restitution first; residual uses cannot self-fund enforcers. Sections 1413 and 1608 govern destination and inflation.

Section 1406 - Responsibility Among Multiple Actors

Section 1406 assigns liability by action, direction, control, knowing assistance, or attributable benefit, with joint liability for indivisible jointly controlled injury and protection for passive transmission. Specific owner-facing platform duties in sections 209, 406, and 1415 override the general marketplace safe harbor; Title XIV allocates any additional damages. Successors inherit ascertainable prospective duties. Multiple theories cannot duplicate recovery, while distinct restoration, restitution, consequential-loss, penalty, and prospective interests remain separately remediable.

Section 1407 - Notice, Cure, and Emergency Relief

Section 1407 rejects administrative or company-process exhaustion. Fifteen-day notice applies only to an individual claim seeking statutory minimums and not to disabling, deletion, unauthorized charging, repossession, retaliation, imminent limitation, or irreparable harm. Even complete cure bars only enhancement, not actual loss or public enforcement. Courts may promptly preserve keys, value, evidence, and essential property with means-sensitive security. Section 1404 supplies remedies.

Section 1408 - Limitations, Accrual, and Preservation

Section 1408 combines discovery periods with ten- and twelve-year repose ceilings, while breach of a continuing duty accrues on a new refusal or adverse act - not merely lingering effects. Concealment, incapacity, military law, missing records, and overlapping public enforcement toll time. A credible claim triggers preservation of technical and transactional evidence; intentional destruction permits adverse inference and enhancement. Section 1414 separately criminalizes intentional tampering.

Section 1409 - Arbitration, Forum, and Collective Rights

Section 1409 overrides predispute arbitration, delegation, jury, and collective-action waivers for RHOP disputes unless the consumer or qualifying small entity elects after the dispute. Postdispute consent must identify the claim, remain revocable for seven days, preserve remedies, and provide accessible procedure. Retaliation is forbidden, protective venue choices remain, and voluntary small claims survives. Section 1404(g) governs collective relief.

Section 1410 - Whistleblower and Anti-Retaliation Protections

Section 1410 protects reporting, evidence assistance, refusal to violate, good-faith technical work, and aid to other owners against employment, account, property, NDA, or other retaliation. Remedies include restoration, double back pay, compensatory relief, and a willfulness minimum. Original information producing more than $1 million may earn 10-30 percent, excluding restitution. Directors of the offense cannot receive awards, though retaliation protection remains.

Section 1411 - Consumer Defenses and Burdens

Section 1411 preserves RHOP violations as defenses, setoff, or recoupment even after affirmative limitations expire, and carries FTC holder-rule claims into product financing. Assignees owe feasible prospective performance but additional damages require records-based notice or culpable participation. Once purchase and material loss are shown, the defendant proves consent, dependency, safety, upstream rights, impossibility, and controlled records. Section 1406 limits passive-actor liability.

Section 1412 - Enforcement Transparency and Complaint Data

Section 1412 creates a privacy-protective complaint portal, cross-government routing, quarterly aggregate practice and company data, searchable final orders, and a 90-day public disposition for reliable repeat-practice signals. A complaint is expressly not a liability finding, and protected security information is withheld. The system supplies evidence for sections 1402-1403 and the market reports required by section 1506.

Section 1413 - No Self-Funding Incentive

Section 1413 sends penalties and forfeitures to the Treasury general fund after restitution and whistleblower awards, unless Congress later appropriates funds for remediation. It also bars tying an enforcement office’s budget to recoveries. The provision removes institutional incentives to maximize sanctions while preserving legislative control of spending. Section 1106 applies the parallel principle to property-forfeiture proceeds.

Section 1414 - Criminal Offenses for Destruction and Fraud

Section 1414 narrowly criminalizes intentional fraudulent or extortionate mass disabling and intentional deprivation- or obstruction-based destruction of required continuity materials. Numerical loss or victim thresholds confine the first offense. Good-faith security actions, recalls, court orders, research, ordinary error, and uncontrollable failure are excluded; negligence, contract breach, and disclosed reasonable legal interpretation are insufficient. Section 1408(e) creates the underlying preservation duty.

Section 1415 - Foreign Sellers, Importers, and Service of Process

Section 1415 reaches foreign conduct directed at or materially affecting United States purchasers, requires high-volume sellers to designate a domestic agent, and makes controlling platforms or importers remedy preventable harm after notice. Without an agent, service follows Rule 4 or applicable State procedure; electronic or platform-assisted service requires a court order, treaty compatibility, and a method reasonably calculated to give actual notice. Small sellers retain substantive duties, and section 1406 allocates backstop liability.

Title XV supplies administration, evidence, grants, and funding while keeping binding policy governmental, preserving sector expertise, protecting encryption, and preventing vendor capture.

Section 1501 - Definitions and Lead Agency

Section 1501 designates the FTC as Commission and general commercial coordinator while preserving DOJ and sector-agency authority. It disclaims new tenure, removal, or adjudicative arrangements beyond constitutional limits, so an appointment or supervision ruling does not erase substantive rights or judicial and State enforcement. Sections 1401-1403 provide the corresponding enforcement allocation.

Section 1502 - Office of Ownership and Durability

Section 1502 creates a supervised FTC office combining technical, economic, legal, accessibility, repair, and preservation expertise. It administers rules, models, education, studies, and the complaint system; an Ombudsman may restore records and facilitate voluntary resolution but cannot waive rights or compel arbitration. Section 1412 supplies complaint data, and section 1506 supplies testing.

Section 1503 - Interagency Ownership Council

Section 1503 convenes relevant commercial, safety, housing, procurement, copyright, preservation, and technical agencies to publish a unified calendar and identify conflicts. The Council cannot veto agencies, delay statutory deadlines, or reduce rights. Semiannual accessible meetings reserve a direct voice for consumers, repairers, disability, rural, Tribal, labor, research, library, and small-business communities. Section 1609 enforces deadlines.

Section 1504 - Rulemaking Standards and Limits

Section 1504 sets 12- and 24-month rule deadlines and requires evidence-based attention to purchaser expectations, feasibility, risk, alternatives, competition, access, waste, and reliance. Agencies cannot create sector-wide escape hatches, silence-based consent, confiscation, shorter statutory floors, or private-standard lawmaking. Small-entity methods may simplify compliance but not outcomes. Courts independently decide legal authority. Sections 107(d) and 1609 reinforce these boundaries.

Section 1505 - Temporary Safety and Cybersecurity Orders

Section 1505 permits narrowly tailored temporary remote restrictions only on specific evidence of imminent serious harm. Emergency orders expire after ten days without notice and an on-record hearing opportunity, and after thirty days without a reasoned evidentiary decision; longer restrictions require rulemaking or court authorization. Owners retain restoration or refund remedies. Express venue, rapid record filing, independent legal review, substantial-evidence review, stays, and expedited loss-of-use claims constrain overbreadth.

Section 1506 - Ownership Research, Testing, and Metrics

Section 1506 assigns NIST open measurement methods for support life, degradation, offline operation, portability, repair, pairing, interoperability, and continuity. It forbids mandated backdoors and conditions laboratory accreditation on independence and secure vulnerability handling. A voluntary durability index and annual market report make ownership quality comparable, while false lookalike seals remain unlawful. Section 1604 gives recognized methods only rebuttable effect.

Section 1507 - Ownership Infrastructure Grants

Section 1507 authorizes competitive community repair, reuse, workforce, preservation, continuity, and Title X ownership grants. Selection favors measurable benefit to underserved communities, worker voice, affordability, privacy, and durability; large projects retain applicable labor standards. Manufacturer-controlled programs cannot exclude independent repair or monetize participant data. Section 1508 authorizes funding, and section 1509 supplies audit and clawback safeguards.

Section 1508 - Authorization of Appropriations

Section 1508 authorizes ten-year administration, enforcement, courts, repair, and preservation funding, plus shorter legacy-migration support, without duplicating section 1008’s Ownership Opportunity Fund. Grant funds remain available until spent, do not supplant existing programs, and create no mandatory spending by themselves. Counsel should obtain current scoring and conform fiscal-year references before introduction. Section 1509 governs program integrity.

Section 1509 - Oversight, Audit, and Program Integrity

Section 1509 requires GAO reviews at years two, five, and ten and coordinated inspector-general scrutiny of fraud, conflicts, capture, retaliation, and data misuse. Material recipients report machine-readable outcomes without exposing households or security-sensitive facts. Clawback follows notice and hearing, with correction for good-faith paperwork defects. The review feeds section 1610 but cannot suspend rights.

Section 1510 - International and Interstate Coordination

Section 1510 promotes compatible labels, repair information, support disclosures, portability, and continuity across borders. Executive adoption of an international agreement or model cannot reduce congressional rights. Foreign-authority cooperation must protect confidentiality and due process. Section 1415 supplies domestic jurisdiction and service rules, while section 109 preserves stronger State and Tribal protections.

Title XVI phases implementation without inviting evasion, preserves other law, and keeps rights operative despite partial invalidity, agency delay, or difficult large legacy systems.

Section 1601 - Application to Existing and Future Transactions

Section 1601 bars retroactive monetary liability based solely on completed pre-enactment conduct, but applies RHOP to new removals, charges, refusals, seizures, and similar acts after their assigned dates. Legacy purchases cannot then lose access; impossibility invokes section 504 remedies rather than recreation of lawfully destroyed property. The one-year “general effective date” and exact schedule are fixed by section 1602.

Section 1602 - General Effective Dates

Section 1602 assigns every operative section once across enactment, 180-day, one-year, 18-month, and two-year cohorts. Necessary definitions and defenses accompany earlier duties without accelerating later substance. Existing subscriptions transition at cancellation, charge, renewal, or change, with anti-acceleration and anti-division rules. A longer express technical period controls narrowly; early compliance changes no other deadline. Section 812’s schedule is thereby resolved.

Section 1603 - Legacy Continuity Registration

Section 1603 requires sellers of dependency-controlled systems serving more than 100,000 active owners to register a confidential continuity contact and plan. Priority goes to safety, accessibility, housing, transport, health, education, records, and million-owner libraries. The Commission may approve unlocks, sunset keys, successors, reserves, or open protocols instead of infeasible source escrow. Confidentiality protects keys, vulnerabilities, and trade secrets. Section 501 defines covered dependency.

Section 1604 - Model Compliance and Limited Safe Harbors

Section 1604 directs accessible multilingual models for recurring compliance tasks, but accurate form use creates only a rebuttable presumption about form and prominence. NIST methods similarly address only their approved criterion and yield to changed risks or less restrictive options. Advisory-opinion reliance may reduce penalties, not restoration, restitution, or actual damages. Sections 1504 and 1506 govern the underlying standards.

Section 1605 - Effect on Other Federal Law

Section 1605 preserves the listed consumer, financial, IP, bankruptcy, communications, privacy, safety, civil-rights, labor, environmental, sanctions, and competition regimes except where RHOP expressly amends them. Specific ownership rules control genuine conflicts, but minimum compliance supplies no immunity. No infringement is compelled; a rights-deficient seller owes lawful replacement or refund. Particularized orders must spare unaffected property. Counsel should conform each express code amendment.

Section 1606 - No Implied Governmental or Corporate Property Right

Section 1606 confirms RHOP’s consumer and qualifying-small-entity purpose without constitutionalizing corporate immunity from taxation, labor, civil-rights, antitrust, environmental, health, zoning, rent, or eminent-domain law. It does not compel new manufacture, sale, speech, financing, or indefinite hosting. Stolen, counterfeit, contraband, or fraudulent property is unprotected, but process and innocent-owner safeguards remain. Section 105 states the affirmative bill of rights.

Section 1607 - Severability

Section 1607 preserves every valid provision, remedy, mechanism, funding condition, and application if another fails. It specifically separates administrative from judicial enforcement, governmental damages from lawful prospective relief, IP or bankruptcy amendments from commercial remedies, statutory minimums from actual and equitable relief, and legacy applications from future transactions. Section 110 supplies the parallel protected-interests rule.

Section 1608 - Inflation and Threshold Adjustments

Section 1608 directs biennial CPI-U increases beginning in 2029 for every dollar and gross-receipts threshold, with practical category-specific rounding and no deflationary reductions. Automatic indexing preserves deterrence, eligibility, and proportionality without reopening substantive policy. Section 104 routes threshold calculations here, and section 1405 expressly applies the adjustment to penalties.

Section 1609 - Deadline Enforcement and Failure to Issue Rules

Section 1609 permits materially affected persons to seek District of Columbia judicial relief for unlawfully withheld or delayed mandatory action. Delay never postpones a self-executing duty; regulated persons may use a documented, demonstrably compliant method. A temporary open standard becomes Federal only after agency notice, comment, independent findings, limited duration, and renewed adoption of later revisions. Courts retain independent statutory judgment, preventing private standard-setters from receiving governmental power.

Section 1610 - Periodic Review; No Sunset

Section 1610 requires five-year recommendations on technical corrections, obsolete rules, new products, and measured safety, competition, accessibility, privacy, durability, and consumer outcomes. Review can support future legislation but cannot itself suspend or diminish rights. The Act has no general sunset, and expiration of an authorization under section 1508 does not terminate duties or enforcement authority.

This material explains the statutory RHOP package. It is not operative bill text and does not address the optional constitutional amendment.

A. Legislative objective

The Right to Have and Own Property Act of 2026 treats ownership as a practical bundle of control rather than a label. A buyer has not received meaningful ownership if the seller can later erase the product, disable a purchased function, demand recurring rent for an already-paid capability, bar repair, prevent ordinary transfer, strand personal data, or confiscate unrelated property because of an account dispute. RHOP supplies a Federal floor against those practices while preserving honest subscriptions, rentals, cloud services, intellectual-property ownership, safety regulation, and stronger State, local, and Tribal law.

The package is deliberately broader than a digital-goods disclosure bill. The same economic pattern appears in several markets: a consumer pays toward ownership while another actor retains unilateral post-sale control. RHOP therefore links transaction labeling, subscription consent, digital access, end-of-service continuity, connected-product durability, repair, transfer and portability, ownership-directed finance, housing equity, public seizure, stored value, Federal procurement, and access to remedies. The unifying principle is that the actor who sells the ownership expectation must either deliver durable practical control or provide a clearly disclosed different transaction before taking payment.

B. Core policy choices

1. Substance controls over boilerplate

The Act uses objective transaction features, prominent representations, price structure, duration, and retained control to classify a sale, rental, subscription, or license. A fine-print statement that “all transactions are licenses” cannot defeat a one-time, indefinite transaction promoted as a purchase. Conversely, a clearly identified, time-limited rental or continuously supplied service remains lawful. This approach targets mismatch, not a particular business model.

2. Ownership is durable, not necessarily perpetual hosting

RHOP does not force a company to operate every remote server forever. It requires advance planning and a ranked continuity response: keep or transfer service; enable local operation; sunset authentication; release a secure interface or community-hosting component; migrate the entitlement; supply a comparable replacement; or, only when practical continued use cannot lawfully be preserved, provide an appropriate refund. This allocates end-of-service risk to the seller that chose a seller-dependent design without treating every sale as an unlimited services contract.

3. Conduct sanctions are separated from property confiscation

A platform may restrict posting, messaging, matchmaking, marketplace access, or other conduct-related privileges after fair process. It ordinarily may not use that sanction to erase unrelated purchased games, films, software, stored value, saves, creative work, receipts, or personal data. The Act requires a property vault, read-only or export access, local access, transfer, replacement, or refund as the circumstances require. Fraud, chargebacks, court orders, sanctions, and property specifically connected to misconduct remain subject to tailored restraints.

4. Safety and cybersecurity are affirmative defenses with evidence

An unlimited “safety or security” exception would swallow local control, version choice, interoperability, and repair. An absolute owner right could, however, endanger patients, road users, networks, and bystanders. RHOP uses an evidence-based middle rule: the restricting actor must identify a material risk, use an effective and narrowly tailored measure, consider a less restrictive alternative, avoid an anticompetitive pretext, document the decision, and restore function when the condition ends. Sector-specific law continues to control actual medical, vehicle, aviation, emissions, communications, sanitation, and security requirements.

5. The right to repair includes the modern control layer

Physical permission to open a product is inadequate when firmware, a paired serial number, a cloud credential, an unavailable calibration, or a proprietary diagnostic blocks completion. Title VII therefore covers manuals, parts, tools, software, diagnostics, resets, calibration, pairing, prior versions, and post-repair validation. It preserves trade secrets not necessary for repair, makes independent repairers responsible for their own negligence and privacy practices, and permits specific secure-access controls for truly safety-critical functions.

6. Subscription law is self-executing

The Act does not depend on the survival of a single agency rule. Separate consent, reminders, annual statements, same-means cancellation, direct cancellation controls, renewed consent for material changes, post-cancellation refunds, and billing-intermediary duties appear in statutory text. Failure to issue a rule does not suspend an objectively administrable duty.

7. Ownership-directed finance is regulated as credit

Rent-to-own, lease-to-own, contract-for-deed, and similar arrangements are classified by economic substance. Title IX applies total-cost and annual-percentage-rate disclosures, a 36-percent all-in ceiling, an independently verifiable cash-price backstop, vested ownership credit, early purchase, cure, reinstatement, and fair disposition. Remote disabling of essential property is treated as repossession, and taking a sole vehicle, necessary medical or accessibility equipment, livelihood tools, or basic habitability goods requires judicial process.

8. Housing provisions fill gaps rather than reenact Public Law 119-101

The July 2026 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act already addresses institutional purchases, HOME shared-equity authority, manufactured-housing grants, appraisal modernization, and related programs. RHOP expressly preserves that law and does not create another exception to 42 U.S.C. 19521. Title X instead adds mortgage treatment for contracts for deed, a manufactured-community resident purchase opportunity, substantive heirs-property and title-clearing assistance, a fair tax-sale process, valuation review, foreclosure-documentation protections, and first-generation, community-land-trust, shared-equity, and resident-ownership investment.

9. Tax-sale federalism is addressed through Federal operations and voluntary funds

RHOP applies its strongest tax-sale process directly to Federal sales. State and local protections attach as clear conditions on new, related Federal housing-preservation, community-development, and tax-administration assistance, with a delayed election, technical assistance, equivalent-compliance option, noncoercion clause, and severability. The text does not purport to redefine the constitutional compensation baseline recognized in Tyler and Pung.

10. Forfeiture reform removes both procedural and fiscal incentives

Federal forfeiture generally requires a criminal conviction, proof of nexus, a prompt retention hearing, Government responsibility for innocent-owner facts, appointed counsel in defined cases, proportionality, and make-whole return. Narrow exceptions address contraband, death, fugitivity, immunity, inability to extradite, unidentified perpetrators, and informed consent. Proceeds do not return to the seizing or prosecuting agency; victims and innocent owners come first, remaining proceeds go to the general fund, and program cost depends on appropriations rather than seizure volume. Equivalent State protections are encouraged through related, voluntarily accepted funds rather than direct commandeering.

11. Stored value is protected without rewriting financial-asset law

Paid gift-card value, platform credits, game currency, and analogous balances do not expire or erode through inactivity fees. Shutdown triggers refund rights. Custodial digital-property rules require beneficial-ownership records, segregation, reconciliation, export, and a categorical bar on rehypothecating anything represented as custody; an affirmative lending or staking choice must use a distinct, nonreserve risk account. The title expressly preserves deposit law, SIPA, commodity-customer rules, ERISA, securities and commodities jurisdiction, anti-money-laundering and sanctions duties, State commercial law, and owner-protective escheat.

12. Enforcement is intentionally plural

The FTC coordinates the generally applicable commercial rules; the CFPB and prudential regulators handle covered financial products; sector agencies handle subject-specific safety and communications matters; DOJ brings civil penalties in Article III court; State, territorial, and Tribal enforcers may sue; and concretely injured owners have an express private action. Predispute arbitration and collective-action waivers are ineffective for RHOP claims unless the claimant elects arbitration after the dispute. This design avoids dependence on the policy or structural status of any single agency.

13. Remedies focus on restoring the property interest

Money is not always an adequate response to a lost family archive, inaccessible mobility device, bricked farm machine, or removed digital library. Courts may order access, unlocking, repair material, pairing, local operation, data export, restoration, replacement, title delivery, return of property, or continuity release. Damages, restitution, statutory minimums tied to concrete injury, penalties, and fee shifting support those specific remedies.

14. Small-entity assistance changes method, not the ownership floor

Model labels, open-source reference implementations, phased reporting, grants, technical assistance, and a first-time microbusiness cure reduce fixed compliance cost. A small seller does not receive permission to erase purchased property, impose an unauthorized charge, confiscate data, or remotely disable a core function. The compliance accommodation is procedural, not substantive.

15. Public purchasing is used to change market incentives

Federal procurement must compare life-cycle cost, repair, support duration, local operation, open formats, exit, reuse, and continuity instead of first-year price alone. Required clauses make ownership and dependency representations material, preserve data export, provide escrow or successor mechanisms, and prevent vendor terms from silently overriding negotiated rights. Secure reuse and donation reduce waste and expand public access.

A. Status, price basis, and scoring conventions

This is an illustrative policy estimate, not a score by the Congressional Budget Office, Joint Committee on Taxation, Office of Management and Budget, or an agency budget office. It uses broad ranges because no administrative data set captures all subscriptions, digital entitlements, connected products, repair restrictions, end-of-service liabilities, ownership-directed transactions, stored-value balances, repossessions, housing-title defects, forfeitures, or affected procurement contracts.

All figures are stated in constant 2026 dollars unless specifically identified as statutory nominal dollars. The central projection assumes 2.2 percent annual inflation, enactment in calendar 2026, initial appropriations beginning in fiscal year 2027, and normal grant outlay lags. Section 1608 expressly indexes grants, program authorizations, and amounts inserted into other Federal statutes beginning in 2029, while preventing duplicate adjustments. The tables therefore treat authorizations as approximately maintaining 2026 purchasing power after the initial 2 years. For comparison, a fixed-nominal design would yield roughly $119.8 billion, rather than $133.9 billion, in 10-year real authorization.

The Act authorizes appropriations; it does not itself appropriate the authorized sums or create mandatory spending. Actual budget authority will depend on future appropriations. Penalties are uncertain and are not treated as a dependable pay-for. Restitution and private refunds are transfers to injured persons, not Federal receipts. Avoided consumer expense and longer useful life are economic benefits, not Treasury savings.

B. Authorized program structure

The model counts Title X funding only under section 1008. The operative section 1508 correctly contains no separate Title-X line and expressly states that the Ownership Opportunity Fund authorization is not duplicated. Section 1507(c) supplies grant authority but not a second appropriation.

C. Transparent outlay assumptions

The central case assumes Congress appropriates 80 percent of the authorized real ceiling over the 10-year window. The low and high cases use approximately 70 and 90 percent, respectively. The model assumes -

administrative accounts outlay 85 to 95 percent in the year appropriated or the next year;

household and housing assistance outlays 30 to 40 percent in the first year of an award, 45 to 55 percent in the second, and the remainder over the next 1 to 3 years;

repair, workforce, continuity, preservation, and title-clearing grants outlay more slowly because recipients must build capacity, satisfy program rules, and complete projects;

Federal migration funds outlay over 2 to 4 years;

unobligated funds are not assumed to be spent merely because an authorization exists; and

no automatic increase in base agency appropriations after fiscal year 2036.

D. Budget summary at 1, 5, 10, and 30 years

“Full authorization ceiling” is not projected spending. In the 30-year reauthorization scenario, the additional 20 years assume annual real authorization of approximately $13.45 billion for the Ownership Opportunity Fund, administration, Judiciary and defender capacity, repair/reuse, and continuity programs, but no repeat of the temporary legacy-migration line. The receipt range remains much smaller than spending because deterrence should reduce repeated violations and because much public recovery is restitution rather than a penalty payable to the Treasury.

E. Federal receipts and intragovernmental effects

1. Civil penalties

Title XIV permits substantial court-imposed penalties, but they are contingent on violations, enforcement selection, proof, proportionality, and collection. Early receipts should be small because most duties phase in over 1 to 2 years. The central case assumes approximately $0.8 billion cumulatively by year 5, $2.5 billion by year 10, and $9 billion by year 30. These figures exclude restitution, disgorgement distributed to injured persons, and whistleblower awards. Congress should not offset guaranteed spending with this volatile stream.

2. Forfeiture funds

Title XI will change both the amount and destination of forfeiture proceeds. Conviction, nexus, innocent-owner, proportionality, and prompt-return rules should reduce some forfeitures; victim restoration and owner payments occur before any general-fund deposit. Ending payments to participating seizing and prosecuting agencies shifts rather than necessarily eliminates some public receipts. The net Federal effect could range from a reduction of several hundred million dollars annually to a modest general-fund increase, depending on case mix and how Congress replaces property-management funding. No net forfeiture offset is included in the tables.

3. Federal procurement

Ownership-first procurement may increase some initial acquisition prices because bids must include exit, repair, data, escrow, and support rights. It should reduce renewal leverage, emergency migration, destruction, replacement, and proprietary maintenance cost. A plausible 10-year gross effect ranges from $2 billion in additional transition and up-front expense to $5 billion-$20 billion in life-cycle savings, but agency contract inventories are insufficient for a reliable net score. The fiscal tables include the $300 million migration authorization and administrative funding but do not credit speculative procurement savings.

4. Courts and appointed counsel

Private actions, State enforcement, Federal penalties, housing disputes, and forfeiture hearings will increase district-court and magistrate workload. Strong cure, model compliance, clearer classification, and restoration remedies should reduce some disputes. Section 1508(a)(6)'s $150 million annual authorization for the Judiciary and Federal Defender Services is included in every table. Actual Title XI hearing and appointed-counsel needs could range from $75 million to more than $200 million annually depending on seizure volume, eligibility, and case duration; costs above the authorization remain a fiscal risk.

F. Private compliance cost

The regulated sectors will incur real transition expense. The estimates below are economy-wide orders of magnitude, not amounts paid by the Federal Government.

Separate from expense, stored-value reserves and continuity assurance may tie up approximately $5 billion-$25 billion in working capital. That is not equivalent to an economic loss: the asset remains available to satisfy customer obligations, and reserve earnings or approved low-risk investment may offset carrying cost. Existing compliant systems, open-source tools, shared standards, longer transitions, and grants should reduce the upper range. Companies dependent on closed repair, forced upgrades, or avoidable churn will bear larger adjustment costs because some current revenue is the target of the law.

G. Consumer, small-business, and economy-wide benefit

Benefits are uncertain but potentially exceed compliance cost because the statute changes recurring market incentives rather than paying only for individual disputes. At mature implementation, an illustrative annual gross range is -

$4 billion-$12 billion from avoided unwanted subscription charges, simpler cancellation, and refunds;

$18 billion-$55 billion from repair access, longer useful life, parts competition, reuse, and reduced replacement;

$3 billion-$12 billion from preservation of digital purchases, account property, stored value, personal data, and end-of-service functionality;

$2 billion-$8 billion from fairer ownership-directed finance, fewer wrongful repossessions, retained equity, and lower emergency replacement costs;

$2 billion-$10 billion from reduced ecosystem lock-in, version choice, interoperability, local control, and more competitive services; and

$1 billion-$5 billion in Federal and federally assisted life-cycle procurement and reuse benefit after transition.

The combined mature annual gross benefit is therefore roughly $30 billion-$100 billion, before counting the social value of greater autonomy, accessibility, privacy, community stability, cultural preservation, or due process. Ten-year cumulative benefit could be approximately $180 billion-$600 billion because major provisions phase in over 2 years; a 30-year range could exceed $1 trillion. These are not net-present-value estimates and should not be compared mechanically with budget outlays.

The $12 billion annual Ownership Opportunity Fund is primarily a public transfer and capital investment, not a new resource benefit equal dollar for dollar. Its value depends on additional ownership achieved, housing supply, price discipline, stewardship, and avoided displacement. Independent appraisal, conflict rules, counseling, price monitoring, long-term affordability, and anti-supplanting are essential to prevent sellers, intermediaries, or incumbent programs from capturing the subsidy.

Small firms have mixed effects. Independent repairers, refurbishers, creators, farmers, small retailers, and service competitors gain access to parts, tools, interfaces, portability, and customers. Small sellers and software developers face new documentation, support, and continuity costs. Model forms, technical assistance, common escrow, shared open tools, phased duties, and the microbusiness cure are therefore important distributive mechanisms rather than ornamental provisions.

H. Major fiscal sensitivities

Indexing effect. Section 1608 expressly indexes sections 1008, 1507, and 1508. That choice adds roughly $14.1 billion in 2026-dollar authority over 10 years compared with a fixed-nominal design, while its no-double-adjustment rule prevents compounding.

Housing absorption. If affordable supply, counseling, title capacity, or resident-acquisition pipelines cannot absorb $12 billion annually without price capture, appropriators may phase funding below the ceiling. A staged formula and annual outcome gate could reduce this risk.

Judiciary funding. Section 1508(a)(6) authorizes $150 million annually for the Judiciary and Federal Defender Services. Appropriators should review workload after 2 years and provide a transfer or supplemental mechanism if prompt hearings and counsel cannot be delivered within that amount.

Continuity assurance. Escrow and reserve cost varies sharply between a small offline application and a million-user live service. Risk-tiered rules are necessary.

Parts and support periods. Product-specific support schedules will determine a large share of manufacturer cost and consumer savings. Congress has supplied criteria but agencies must build reliable evidence.

Forfeiture replacement funding. Agencies that now use forfeiture proceeds may seek appropriations. The statute intentionally exposes that cost to ordinary budgeting, but the transition must avoid unsafe storage or unmanaged evidence.

Litigation volume. Clear model compliance, cure, restoration, and public guidance can lower cost. Counsel should rerun the completed date and cross-reference validations after any later renumbering.

Behavioral response. A successful law reduces violations and penalty receipts. It may also cause sellers to switch honestly from “buy” to disclosed subscriptions; consumer welfare then depends on competition and price transparency rather than an assumed ownership transaction.

Section 1602 now assigns every operative section exactly once, permits early compliance, accelerates only necessary dependent rules, and preserves a longer express transition for the identified duty.

Phase 0: Enactment through day 90

The President designates the Interagency Ownership Council and the FTC establishes the Office of Ownership and Durability and Ownership Ombudsman.

The FTC publishes a single public implementation calendar identifying each self-executing duty, assigned agency, rulemaking, model form, and effective date.

OMB, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, GSA, and agency chief acquisition officers begin an inventory of high-dependency contracts, digital entitlements, mission-essential connected products, proprietary consumables, and contracts scheduled for renewal.

DOJ, Treasury, DHS, the Judiciary, and Federal seizing agencies design the conviction, receipt, hearing, counsel, custody, return, and revenue-neutrality transition for Title XI.

HUD and USDA organize the Ownership Opportunity Fund, create a unified program office, map overlap with Public Law 119-101, and begin consultation with States, Tribes, community land trusts, resident associations, legal-aid providers, CDFIs, and housing counselors.

The FTC and sector agencies open technical dockets for definitions, product-risk tiers, support periods, escrow alternatives, pairing, secure repair access, and model disclosures.

Appropriators decide initial fiscal year 2027 amounts. Agencies may hire, issue grants, and begin administration under provisions effective on enactment.

Phase 1: Day 91 through day 180

Agencies issue plain-language interim guidance on provisions effective at day 180 without attempting to postpone or narrow them.

Subscription providers and billing intermediaries implement cancellation, refund, stop-charge, and intermediary controls; enforcers activate defense, burden, transparency, cure, and emergency-relief systems.

Courts and law-enforcement agencies begin training for prompt forfeiture retention hearings, essential-property release, innocent-owner burdens, and return obligations.

Federal tax-sale programs revise notices, payment-plan procedures, marketing, valuation, automatic surplus return, and hardship review.

The FTC launches a beta complaint portal with secure upload for receipts, entitlement records, charge evidence, update logs, repair denials, and end-of-service notices.

HUD publishes advance grant design and nonduplication guidance so Title X applicants can build pipelines before funding notices.

At day 180, sections 301, 304, 307, 311-313, 1005, 1101-1109, 1407, and 1411-1412 take effect.

Phase 2: Month 6 through month 12

Assigned agencies publish proposed rules by the section 1504(a) 12-month deadline, except where a title requires an earlier final rule.

The FTC releases model sale/subscription labels, durable receipts, renewal notices, direct-cancellation controls, account-property notices, and advertising-consent forms in accessible and multilingual formats.

The CFPB proposes ownership-directed financing, rent-to-own, cash-price, payment-ledger, cure, repossession, and stored-value rules and coordinates contract-for-deed implementation with HUD.

Digital sellers build account-independent entitlement receipts and property-vault separation. Stored-value issuers separate paid and promotional balances, remove expiration and inactivity erosion, and plan shutdown refunds.

The FAR Council publishes proposed ownership-first clauses and model life-cycle evaluation methods; it should meet the more specific 18-month final deadline in section 1302.

HUD and USDA issue initial Ownership Opportunity Fund notices using common applications and anti-price-capture controls.

At 1 year, Title II; the remaining assigned subscription sections; account-vault, conduct/property, preservation, hardware-advertising, and remote-action rules; Title IX; assigned housing rules; Title XII; private remedies; retaliation; and section 1415 take effect as listed in section 1602(d).

Phase 3: Month 12 through month 18

Digital sellers deploy durable-access, export, authentication, version-choice, and interoperability functions.

Manufacturers provide repair documents, diagnostics, pairing and calibration paths, third-party-consumable compatibility, and required version archives.

NIST publishes initial measurement methods and security profiles, including a method that does not require a universal backdoor.

Sellers of legacy seller-dependent systems with more than 100,000 active owners file the confidential contact and continuity-plan summary required by section 1603.

The FTC prioritizes systems affecting safety, accessibility, housing, transportation, education, health, public records, and very large digital libraries.

The FAR Council finalizes required acquisition clauses by month 18; GSA provides implementation templates and starts the governmentwide dashboard.

At 18 months, the Title IV, VI, VII, and VIII sections listed in section 1602(e) take effect, including digital sale, local control, version choice, export, interoperability, pairing, consumables, and repair.

Phase 4: Month 18 through month 24

Each assigned agency issues final rules by 24 months and explains any division of sector jurisdiction.

Sellers complete product-specific durability disclosures, support and parts schedules, continuity plans, escrow or approved alternatives, release security, and objective exception records.

Federal procurement clauses apply to new covered acquisitions, renewals, and material modifications under the risk-based legacy schedule.

Housing grant conditions take effect only after clear notice, the statutory delay, and a documented opportunity for an affected jurisdiction to accept or decline related funds.

Seizing agencies complete transition to appropriated custody and management accounts and cease using anticipated receipts as operating resources.

The FTC, CFPB, HUD, USDA, DOJ, sector agencies, and State and Tribal partners conduct coordinated examinations in high-risk markets, emphasizing restoration before penalties for good-faith first-time implementation errors that caused no property loss.

At 2 years, Title V, durability and support sections 604 and 610-611, manufactured-community and heirs-property sections 1003-1004, and Title XIII take effect.

Phase 5: Years 3 through 5

The FTC publishes the Ownership Durability Index by year 3 and updates annual market reports and complaint data.

GAO conducts the year-2 and year-5 reviews required by section 1509, including grant distribution, housing-equity preservation, security effects, litigation, forfeiture incentives, and unintended consequences.

NIST and sector agencies validate whether support periods, safety exceptions, secure gateways, local-control methods, and escrow alternatives are working across product classes.

HUD and USDA evaluate additional homeownership, price capture, resident-community conversions, title resolution, foreclosure avoidance, geographic distribution, and long-term shared-equity stewardship.

Congress reviews Judiciary, appointed-counsel, forfeiture-custody, and agency workload and adjusts appropriations without tying budgets to recoveries.

Agencies replace fragmented forms and duplicative reporting with a common compliance file wherever statutory duties overlap.

Phase 6: Years 5 through 10 and beyond

The Interagency Ownership Council makes its first 5-year technical recommendations without suspending any right. GAO completes the year-10 review before the fiscal year 2036 authorization expires. Congress then chooses whether to reauthorize, resize, or retarget the administrative and grant programs. Under section 1610, expiration of an authorization does not sunset transaction rights, remedies, continuing duties, or public enforcement. If appropriations lapse, agencies must prioritize self-executing rights and core enforcement but may face an unfunded-capacity problem that Congress should address expressly.

Consumers and households

Consumers receive clearer prices, cancellation, durable receipts, purchased-property access, repair and version choice, data export, continuity, stored-value protection, and stronger process before loss of essential property. The main risk is that some firms respond by pricing support explicitly, offering more subscriptions, or withdrawing marginal products. Honest reclassification is permissible; competition, model disclosures, and targeted small-business assistance are expected to discipline the response.

Low-income, rural, Tribal, disability, veteran, and historically excluded communities

These communities bear disproportionate harm from loss of a sole vehicle, distant authorized repair, inaccessible account recovery, title defects, manufactured-community sale, heirs-property partition, biased or erroneous valuation, and confiscatory process. They benefit from essential-property rules, rural mobile repair, accessible design, title and legal aid, Section 184 and Tribal coordination, first-generation assistance, and resident acquisition. Implementation must fund local capacity rather than requiring beneficiaries to navigate only national online portals.

Digital storefronts, platforms, game publishers, and cloud providers

Platforms must build entitlement records, property vaults, export, conduct/property separation, shutdown refunds, and continuity plans. They gain uniform baseline rules and may allocate upstream risk contractually. Their principal concerns will be rights-holder contracts, piracy, fraud, cybersecurity, live-service cost, and legacy architecture. The Act addresses those concerns through one-owner/one-copy principles, tailored fraud holds, confidentiality, risk-tiered continuity alternatives, and no duty to host indefinitely.

Manufacturers and authorized service networks

Manufacturers face documentation, parts, diagnostic, pairing, support, local-control, update, and durability duties. Revenue may shift away from captive service and premature replacement. They retain protection for proven safety needs, unrelated trade secrets, their own warranty scope, and damage caused by negligent independent work. Rulemaking should standardize formats and permit secure role-based access without converting certification into an exclusionary gate.

Independent repair, refurbishment, recycling, and workforce organizations

These stakeholders gain tools, parts, diagnostics, calibration, pairing, software, warranty neutrality, training, grants, and a larger reuse market. They remain liable for negligent work, deceptive provenance, privacy violations, environmental mishandling, and unlawful modifications. Apprenticeship, insurance, secure data handling, and sector credential pathways will determine whether new access produces safe market entry.

Creators, publishers, copyright owners, and collective licensing organizations

RHOP does not transfer copyright with a copy and does not authorize public redistribution. Rights holders will nevertheless object to preservation copies, incidental digital transfer, community hosting, and escrow release. Exact copyright amendments, security requirements, noncommercial limits, proof that a usable replacement is unavailable where applicable, and remedies against increased copy counts are central to maintaining the ownership/copyright distinction.

Cybersecurity researchers and security teams

Researchers benefit from repair and good-faith access safe harbors; security teams gain documented emergency authority and risk-based controls. Both need vulnerability-handling rules that avoid premature publication, universal keys, or indefinite secrecy. Clear coordination among NIST, FTC, CISA or another operational security body, and sector agencies should be added where the final bill assigns responsibility.

Lenders, rent-to-own firms, servicers, repossession agents, and marketplaces

These actors face credit classification, a 36-percent all-in limit, cash-price verification, payment and equity ledgers, cure, reinstatement, judicial process for essential property, personal-effects and data return, and commercially reasonable disposition. Responsible providers gain clearer national minimums and fewer wrongful-repossession disputes. High-cost models dependent on forfeiting accumulated consumer value will require fundamental change.

Home sellers, mortgage servicers, appraisers, park owners, CLTs, CDFIs, and resident associations

Contract-for-deed sellers become mortgage creditors and cannot erase equity through forfeiture clauses. Manufactured-community owners must give notice and a fair resident purchase opportunity but need not accept less than a bona fide arm's-length price. Appraisers and servicers face documentation and review duties; qualified professionals gain protection against target-value pressure. CLTs, resident cooperatives, CDFIs, counselors, and legal aid receive capital and operating opportunity, with stewardship and anti-price-capture obligations.

Law-enforcement agencies, prosecutors, victims, and innocent owners

Agencies lose direct financial benefit from forfeiture and must meet stricter proof and hearing requirements. They retain criminal forfeiture, contraband authority, evidence preservation, exigent seizure, and narrow civil exceptions. Victims receive priority restoration; innocent owners receive counsel, prompt release, and repair. Congress must replace legitimate custody and litigation expense through transparent appropriations so reform does not create unmanaged evidence or unsafe storage.

States, territories, local governments, and Tribes

These governments retain stronger consumer and property law and may enforce RHOP. Direct mandates focus on commercial actors and Federal operations; sensitive tax-sale and forfeiture provisions use related funding conditions with choices and severability. Some jurisdictions will object to administrative cost or Federal intrusion. Common forms, implementation grants, equivalent-compliance pathways, and non-supplanting rules can reduce friction while preserving the Federal floor.

Federal agencies, libraries, schools, archives, and taxpayers

Public bodies gain better exit, repair, preservation, reuse, and procurement leverage, but must invest in inventory, contracting expertise, testing, sanitization, escrow, and migration. Libraries and archives gain preservation pathways while carrying security and acquired-use obligations. Taxpayers bear significant housing and infrastructure authorization but may realize lower life-cycle procurement cost and greater household asset stability if implementation is disciplined.

Labor and environmental organizations

Repair, refurbishment, local service, training, apprenticeship, reuse, and longer product life can create jobs and reduce material waste. Labor groups will scrutinize automation, subcontracting, wage standards, and whether independent repair work is stable and safe. Environmental groups will support durability while insisting that repair does not defeat emissions, refrigerant, battery, biomedical, or hazardous-waste controls. Title VII and grant labor standards recognize both concerns.

1. Does RHOP ban subscriptions?

No. A seller may offer a subscription, rental, metered service, or time-limited license if it is identified accurately before payment. RHOP regulates consent, renewal, price changes, cancellation, and the separation of the subscription from property already purchased. The target is hidden or retroactively imposed rent, not voluntary recurring services.

2. When does a transaction count as a sale?

Economic substance and the reasonable purchaser's understanding control. A one-time price, indefinite access, “buy” language, possession, and absence of a genuine return obligation support a sale. Prominent transaction terms override inconsistent boilerplate. A merchant may rebut the presumption with a clear, prepayment description of a genuinely limited transaction.

3. Can a company simply rename every purchase a license?

No. Section 106's anti-evasion rule and Title II prevent classification by label alone. A limited copyright license can coexist with ownership of a particular copy or durable entitlement, just as buying a printed book does not convey the copyright. The seller must describe both interests accurately.

4. Must a seller run a server forever?

No. The continuity ladder prioritizes continued use but permits a successor, local mode, authentication sunset, community-hosting component, interoperable migration, comparable replacement, or refund. The required method depends on technical feasibility, security, third-party rights, price, useful life, and the promise made at sale.

5. What happens if an upstream studio or licensor withdraws rights?

The platform and rights holder may allocate responsibility between themselves, but the consumer does not automatically bear their contracting failure. The seller must preserve access through a lawful method or supply replacement or monetary relief. The Act does not force infringement; it assigns commercial risk to the actors that sold the entitlement.

6. How are live-service and multiplayer games treated?

The Act distinguishes an inherently shared live service from separable purchased content and core functions. It does not promise an unchanged player population or perpetual moderation. A wind-down may permit local play, community servers, an interoperable server component, transfer, replacement, or a use-adjusted refund while protecting other users, security, and copyrighted assets.

7. Can a platform ban a user for harassment or fraud?

Yes, after proportionate process. It may restrict the feature connected to the conduct, such as posting, matchmaking, trading, or messaging. It ordinarily must preserve unrelated purchases, saves, stored value, receipts, and personal data through a property vault, read-only access, export, transfer, local use, replacement, or refund.

8. Does RHOP protect fraudulently acquired property?

No. Fraud, theft, chargebacks, sanctions, and court orders can justify a tailored hold or recovery. The provider must connect the restraint to the disputed property or risk and preserve unaffected property. An allegation does not authorize permanent confiscation of the entire account without evidence and review.

9. Can advertising appear on a purchased device?

Advertising disclosed as part of the bargain may appear within the disclosed scope. A seller may not later introduce or materially increase advertising in a purchased product without affirmative consent, particularly in a core interface. Safety alerts, receipts, requested messages, and legally required notices are not advertisements.

10. Does local control mean every smart product must work fully offline?

No. Core functions must operate locally where reasonably feasible, and avoidable cloud dependencies cannot be used to preserve control. A function inherently requiring remote data, shared computation, communications, or third-party content may remain network-dependent if the dependency and support period were disclosed and continuity is addressed.

11. May an owner refuse security updates forever?

An owner may defer noncritical updates and retain, reinstall, or roll back supported versions. A seller or network operator may isolate a version that presents a documented material risk to other systems when a less restrictive response is unavailable. Purchased local functionality should continue where it can do so safely.

12. Does the repair right allow disabling emissions or safety controls?

No. Vehicle, medical, aviation, rail, maritime, environmental, sanitation, and other specific safety law remains in force. The manufacturer must still provide the lawful diagnostics, parts, calibration, and secure access needed to restore compliance. “Safety” cannot serve as a categorical excuse to reserve all repair to the manufacturer.

13. Must a manufacturer disclose all source code and trade secrets?

No. It must provide the minimum material necessary for diagnosis, compatibility, calibration, security, repair, continuity, or an expressly authorized transfer. Confidential delivery, interfaces, escrow, role-based credentials, or object code may protect unrelated secrets. A claimed trade secret cannot conceal ordinary repair information already shared with an authorized network.

14. Are serialized or paired parts always prohibited?

No. Serialization may support provenance, calibration, theft prevention, biometrics, sterility, or a specific safety function. It may not reject an otherwise compatible part or disable performance merely because of origin. Necessary pairing and calibration must be available to owners or qualified independent providers through a reasonable path.

15. Does independent repair void the warranty?

Not automatically. A warrantor may deny the reasonable cost of damage it proves was caused by negligent repair, an incompatible part, or an unauthorized modification. It remains responsible for unrelated defects and cannot void the entire warranty merely because an owner opened the product or chose an independent provider.

16. Can consumers use third-party ink, batteries, filters, or other consumables?

Yes, if compatible and lawful. A product may accurately report condition or a specific safety issue, but may not falsely show “empty,” reduce performance, or reject the item solely because it lacks the manufacturer's identifier. The seller bears the burden of connecting a consumable to damage for which coverage is denied.

17. Does RHOP legalize piracy or public redistribution?

No. Ownership of a copy is distinct from copyright. Backup, repair, preservation, interoperability, and verified transfer rights are limited to lawful uses and may not increase the number of usable copies or authorize public distribution. Exact Title VIII language must implement those limits and penalties before the bill is introduced.

18. How does continuity escrow avoid creating a cybersecurity vulnerability?

Escrow can hold source, keys, build instructions, interfaces, or another minimum continuity package under encryption, access control, testing, and objective release triggers. A universal key is forbidden. A seller may use an approved offline unlock, insurer-backed remedy, successor arrangement, or open protocol when source escrow is disproportionate or dangerous.

19. Does RHOP apply to products purchased before enactment?

It does not impose new damages for conduct completed before enactment. New post-effective-date charges, renewals, removals, disablements, refusals to export, account terminations, end-of-service decisions, repossessions, seizures, and foreclosure sales can be covered. Legacy systems receive registration and alternative-continuity pathways; lawfully destroyed property need not be recreated.

20. How does the bill treat rent-to-own?

An ownership-directed arrangement is consumer credit regardless of a “rental” label. The provider must disclose cash price, total payments, annual percentage rate, fees, item condition, equity, and ownership date. A 36-percent all-in limit, early purchase, vested equity, cure, reinstatement, and fair disposition apply, subject to stronger State law.

21. Can a lender remotely disable a vehicle for a missed payment?

Remote disabling is repossession. It may never occur while moving, in an unsafe location, during a dispute or protected period, or in a way that disables safety functions. A sole vehicle or other essential property requires judicial process. Emergency overrides, advance warnings, data minimization, and verified default rules apply.

22. Does Title X duplicate the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act?

No. RHOP leaves Public Law 119-101 and 42 U.S.C. 19521 intact. It fills different gaps through mortgage treatment for contracts for deed, resident purchase opportunities, heirs/title services, first-generation assistance, tax-sale process, and foreclosure documentation.

23. Does every civil forfeiture require a conviction?

Federal forfeiture generally does. Narrow exceptions cover contraband, death, fugitivity, extradition, immunity, unidentified wrongdoers, and informed consent, without displacing Government burdens or prompt hearings. If forfeiture fails, property must be returned promptly and qualifying repair, interest, and loss-of-use costs paid.

24. Do paid gift cards and platform credits expire?

Paid value does not expire or erode through inactivity fees, although a security credential may expire if free replacement access preserves the balance. Title XII does not classify crypto as a security, commodity, or deposit and preserves sanctions, AML, fraud-review, prudential, insolvency, tax, gaming, and State law.

25. Who can enforce RHOP, and do arbitration or stronger State-law rules survive?

FTC, DOJ, CFPB, sector regulators, State and territorial attorneys general, Tribal public enforcers, and concretely injured owners have roles. Predispute arbitration cannot be compelled for RHOP claims. Stronger State, local, and Tribal protections survive absent physical impossibility, and rulemaking delay does not suspend self-executing duties.

Disclosure or cancellation reform alone

Digital-label and click-to-cancel rules improve honesty and exit but leave paid-goods removal, bricking, repair locks, shutdown, stored value, repossession, and account confiscation untouched. RHOP combines both rules with substantive ownership rights.

Agency rulemaking without a detailed statute

Delegation would be easier to draft but vulnerable to leadership changes, jurisdictional gaps, procedural invalidation, and delay. RHOP states policy and remedies directly while leaving bounded technical updates to agencies.

Complete preemption or direct State-process control

A uniform exclusive code or direct command over State sales and forfeitures would be broader, but would displace stronger law and increase federalism risk. RHOP uses a Federal floor, direct Federal rules, and related voluntary funding conditions.

Permanent service or refund-only end-of-life relief

Perpetual original service is often infeasible, while money may not replace archives, accessibility, or unique software. RHOP instead ranks successor service, local use, interoperability, transfer, and replacement before refund.

Categorical safety exemptions

Whole-sector exemptions would remove important ownership interests. RHOP preserves specific safety law and secure qualification while rejecting categorical loopholes.

Public enforcement only or mandatory arbitration

Public enforcement cannot restore every loss and varies by administration; mandatory predispute arbitration may suppress small and systemic claims. RHOP adds a concrete-injury private action and preserves voluntary post-dispute arbitration.

Reenacting the institutional-investor housing restriction

Public Law 119-101 already supplies that restriction. Duplicating it could create conflict, so RHOP preserves 42 U.S.C. 19521 and adds complementary ownership pathways.

Mandatory spending rather than authorization

Direct spending would provide certainty but raise the score and reduce annual oversight. RHOP uses authorizations; the rights persist even if later funding lapses.

Treating all virtual assets alike

A single rule for gift balances, securities, deposits, commodities, and crypto custody would conflict with specialized regimes. Title XII protects paid value and custody while preserving financial, tax, gaming, AML, and sanctions law.

A. Audit status

The policy architecture is comprehensive and the central anti-evasion choices are mutually reinforcing. All 16 operative titles, the table of contents, synchronized funding, foreign-seller backstop, cross-references, Code-subsection slots, exhaustive effective-date schedule, Title V transition rule, and indexing rule are in place. The identified archival, platform-liability, damages, resident-standstill, custody, temporary-order, technical-fallback, and foreign-service conflicts have been reconciled. The package remains a discussion draft pending introduction-date legislative-counsel review of executable Code amendments and specialist subjects.

B. Coverage audit

C. Completed assembly controls

D. Critical and high-priority conforming items

Complete executable conforming amendments. Section 1109 now adds 18 U.S.C. 983(k), but section 1105(b)'s generic supersession language, section 509's stay exception, and section 908's priority insertion still need counsel review. The section 507(a)(7) “not delivered or provided” qualifier may not fit delivered rent-to-own property. Verify all amendatory instructions on introduction.

Verify copyright and treaty implementation. Section 807 now supplies controlled nonsoftware personal archives, preserves section 109(b), suspends owner use during lending, and requires deletion after disposition. Copyright counsel should still test the operative language against treaty obligations and the complete title 17 framework on introduction.

Obtain specialist review. Bankruptcy, copyright, forfeiture, appropriations, financial-regulation, Federal Courts, housing, and procurement counsel should test the novel rules and ensure no program language unintentionally creates direct spending or conflicts with a newly amended Code provision.

E. Loophole audit

F. Internal-consistency audit

Funding. Section 1008 alone authorizes $12 billion annually for the Ownership Opportunity Fund. Section 1508(a) totals $450 million annually, including $150 million for the Judiciary and Federal Defender Services; section 1508(b) adds $750 million annually for repair and transition, $250 million annually for continuity, and a temporary $300 million migration line. The resulting 10-year nominal ceiling is $134.8 billion. These amounts now match the fiscal tables.

Definitions. Harmonize “stored value” in section 104 with “paid stored value” and “custodial digital property” in Title XII; “seller” with creditor, issuer, custodian, manufacturer, and platform duties; and “owner,” “digital good,” “durable entitlement,” “core function,” and “personal digital property” across Titles I and IV-XII.

Remedy allocation. Confirm that sections 209, 406, 508, 1205, and 1406 allocate upstream, platform, successor, and multiple-actor liability without duplicate recovery. Confirm that the Title XIV cure does not postpone emergency access, stop-billing, stay, return, or preservation relief.

Agency routing. Resolve overlaps among FTC, CFPB, prudential regulators, FCC, sector safety agencies, DOJ, and State or Tribal enforcers. Designate an operational cyber coordinator - potentially CISA - for vulnerability handling and continuity releases without displacing NIST's standards role.

Schedules and records. Align preservation, escrow, support, complaint, transfer, repossession, custody, and fiduciary-record periods. State which longer title-specific period controls and when an insolvency, litigation hold, safety event, or succession claim extends destruction deadlines.

Drafting mechanics. Normalize capitalization and enumerations, verify every defined term is used consistently, and regenerate the table of contents only after counsel completes subsection and section renumbering.

G. Constitutional and administrative risk audit

Commerce and federalism. Jurisdictional elements, direct commercial regulation, Federal-property rules, and related voluntary funding conditions materially reduce risk. Tax sale, manufactured-community sale, foreclosure, and State forfeiture applications should receive particular Spending Clause and anti-commandeering review.

Takings and retroactivity. Prospective liability, legacy alternatives, refund options, and no duty to recreate destroyed property reduce reliance concerns. Escrow release, trade-secret disclosure, successor duties, and application to old entitlements still require product-specific Takings and due-process review.

Copyright and speech. Title VIII preserves copyright ownership and disclaims piracy and compelled hosting. Its digital-transfer, anti-preemption, and permanent-circumvention provisions nevertheless need a complete First Amendment, Copyright Clause, treaty, DMCA, reproduction-right, and preemption audit.

Seventh Amendment and agency structure. Legal penalties and damages go to Article III courts with jury rights, while the FTC coordinates rather than receiving new protected tenure. Final text should keep administrative adjudication limited to genuinely public regulatory matters.

Standing and sovereign immunity. Concrete injury is required for private damages, and bare notice defects support prospective/public relief. Review every governmental cause of action for an express waiver, proper officer remedy, and Spending Clause rights-creating language.

Nondelegation and judicial review. Detailed statutory factors, limits, public findings, temporary-order expiry, and independent judicial interpretation are strengths. Product support schedules, waiver authority, and technical fallbacks must remain within those boundaries.

FAA override. Section 1409 expressly invokes the FAA and preserves voluntary post-dispute arbitration, supporting the intended override. Counsel should confirm jury-waiver and representative-action language across all covered claims.

H. Fiscal and program-integrity audit

The bill correctly states that authorizations are not appropriations, places penalties in the general fund after victim payments, bars agency budgets tied to recovery, requires recipient reporting and clawback process, and prohibits supplanting and vendor capture. The synchronized 10-year nominal ceiling is $134.8 billion: $120 billion under section 1008, $4.5 billion for section 1508(a), $7.5 billion for repair and transition, $2.5 billion for continuity, and $300 million for temporary migration. Remaining risks are housing subsidy capitalization, insufficient title and counseling capacity, grant fragmentation, continuity-reserve overcapitalization, forfeiture-custody underfunding, court and defender workload above $150 million annually, and compliance cost concentrated on small developers. Ownership Opportunity Fund reporting should measure unit cost, additionality, geography, beneficiary, failure, displacement, and price capture.

I. Final validation checklist

[x] Include operative Title VIII, sections 801-812.

[x] Generate a complete table of contents through Title XVI.

[x] Include section 1415's foreign-seller backstop.

[x] Add section 1508(a)(6), remove duplicate Title-X funding, and reconcile the nominal ceiling to $134.8 billion.

[x] Pass automated structural cross-reference validation on the assembled draft.

[x] Correct the identified semantic cross-references and rerun validation.

[x] Correct the identified occupied or skipped subsection labels in sections 807, 809, and 1202.

[x] Map every operative section exactly once and define the applicable and general effective dates.

[x] Resolve the 18-month Title IV/VI dependency on section 504 remedies.

[x] Clarify that other Title-V references do not accelerate independent 2-year duties.

[ ] Compare every amendatory instruction with the United States Code current on the introduction date.

[x] Replace section 1109's generic CAFRA direction with new 18 U.S.C. 983(k).

[x] State expressly that section 1608 indexes program authorizations without duplicate adjustment.

[x] Resolve enforcement routing and Federal recovery-account treatment.

[x] Resolve the actor-liability, damages, standstill, custody, temporary-order, technical-fallback, and foreign-service conflicts.

[ ] Harmonize overlapping definitions, especially seller, stored value, digital property, owner, core function, and qualifying small entity.

[ ] Confirm agency jurisdiction, referral, penalty, jury, and sovereign-immunity pathways.

[ ] Test simultaneous compliance with stronger State repair, renewal, credit, foreclosure, privacy, gift-card, and unclaimed-property law.

[ ] Validate confidentiality for escrow, source, security research, appraisals, complaint data, and whistleblowers.

[ ] Conduct scenario tests for digital removal, company failure, account ban, forced subscription, paired repair, unsafe old software, rent-to-own default, sole-vehicle disablement, contract-for-deed default, park sale, heirs partition, tax foreclosure, cash seizure, gift-card shutdown, custodial insolvency, and a foreign seller.

[ ] Obtain CBO, JCT if any tax interaction is added, Judiciary, GAO, procurement, and agency technical estimates.

[ ] Obtain House and Senate Legislative Counsel review before introduction.

J. Quality-check conclusion

The substantive design closes the principal ownership loopholes without banning subscriptions, compelling indefinite hosting, transferring copyright, or authorizing unsafe repair. Its strongest features include the economic-substance rule, continuity ladder, property/conduct separation, essential-property process, Public Law 119-101 savings, forfeiture revenue neutrality, plural enforcement, and severability. The text should remain a policy-complete discussion draft until counsel replaces generic conforming directions and verifies the Code on introduction.

FINANCING, HOMEOWNERSHIP, FORFEITURE, AND STORED VALUE

These notes identify principal authorities used to set the statutory floor; they are not part of the bill text.

Public Law 119-101. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (July 11, 2026) already established, among other measures, a PRICE program for eligible manufactured housing communities, expanded HOME shared-equity and community-land-trust authorities, required reconsideration-of-value procedures for federally backed mortgages, ordered a residential-heirs-property study, and restricted purchases of single-family homes by defined large institutional investors. Sections 1004(d), 1006(d), and 1009 were drafted to supplement those provisions without changing 42 U.S.C. 19521 or creating a new exception.

Contracts for deed. The CFPB's 2024 advisory opinion explains that a seller-financed contract for deed generally is credit under TILA and Regulation Z. Section 1002 codifies that substance rule and adds mortgage-style title, escrow, cure, and foreclosure safeguards.

Rent-to-own. The FTC's Survey of Rent-to-Own Customers found that 70 percent of merchandise was ultimately purchased and recommended shopping-stage total-cost disclosures. The report also warned that cash-price manipulation can distort APR comparisons; sections 901, 903, and 909 therefore require an independently verifiable cash-price backstop.

Repossession and disabling. The CFPB's 2025 auto-repossession report and FTC vehicle-repossession guidance document assignment, servicing, third-party, and starter-interrupt risks. Existing military protection appears in 50 U.S.C. 3952.

Bankruptcy. Current exemptions are collected in 11 U.S.C. 522. Section 908 creates a national minimum floor while preserving greater exemptions and clarifies that remote disabling is an act to control or collect against property.

Manufactured communities, heirs property, and shared equity. HUD reports that its earlier PRICE awards funded preservation and resident-managed transitions. USDA's Heirs' Property Relending Program finances title resolution and consolidation. Public Law 119-101 now supplies permanent related authorities; Title X adds a purchase opportunity and operating assistance.

Tax-foreclosure equity. *Tyler v. Hennepin County*, 598 U.S. 631 (2023), holds that government may not retain surplus value beyond the tax debt. *Pung v. Isabella County*, 609 U.S. ___ (2026), identifies a fairly conducted auction price, rather than hypothetical fair market value, as the constitutional compensation baseline. Section 1005 consciously uses Federal operations and voluntary, related spending conditions to establish a more protective statutory process without purporting to redefine the Takings Clause.

Civil forfeiture. Current CAFRA rules appear in 18 U.S.C. 983. *Culley v. Marshall*, 601 U.S. 377 (2024), requires a timely forfeiture hearing but does not constitutionally require a separate preliminary hearing; Title XI supplies one by statute. *Timbs v. Indiana*, 586 U.S. 146 (2019), applies the Excessive Fines Clause to the States. DOJ's current Equitable Sharing Program and 2024 guide informed sections 1105 and 1106.

Gift cards and prepaid value. Current Federal law permits certain expiration dates no earlier than 5 years and certain inactivity fees after 1 year; see 15 U.S.C. 1693l-1 and 12 C.F.R. 1005.20. Title XII replaces that ceiling for paid value while preserving stronger State unclaimed-property and redemption law.

Digital custody boundaries. FinCEN's 2019 convertible-virtual-currency guidance confirms that money-transmission duties can apply by business model. The Uniform Law Commission's 2022 UCC amendments create Article 12 for controllable electronic records. Sections 1201 and 1209 preserve securities, commodities, banking, money-transmission, sanctions, and State commercial-law classifications while supplying gap-filling consumer ownership duties.