H.R. 10146

I
  119TH CONGRESS
  2D SESSION
  H. R. 10146
  To require a covered tool to disclose when the covered tool provides sponsored
  content, and for other purposes.
  IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
  AUGUST 24, 2026
  Mr. MAGAZINER (for himself and Ms. NORTON) introduced the following bill;
  which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
  A BILL
  To require a covered tool to disclose when the covered tool
  provides sponsored content, and for other purposes.
1Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
  2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3   SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
4This Act may be cited as the ‘‘AI Advertising Disclo-
  5 sure Act’’.
6   SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS; PROHIBITIONS.
7(a) MANDATORY DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS.—
8(1) IN GENERAL.—A covered entity shall dis-
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9close when the response of a covered tool—
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1(A) mentions, recommends, presents, or fa-
2vorably mentions a product, service, or entity
3pursuant to a commercial arrangement, regard-
4less of whether the user explicitly requested a
5product recommendation;
6(B) is general in nature and influenced by
7a commercial arrangement, including through a
8brand-specific mention, ranking, or omission
9embedded within advice, how-to, or informa-
10tional response not framed as product queries;
11(C) is generated using a system prompt,
12retrieval-augmented generation source, or fine-
13tuning data that has been provided or funded
14by a third party under a commercial arrange-
15ment; or
16(D) contains an affiliate link or referral
17code, whether embedded or appended.
18(2) FORMS  OF  DISCLOSURE.—A  disclosure
19under paragraph (1) shall be as follows:
20(A) Clear and conspicuous, visible without
21scrolling, in plain language, and provided with
22or before the display of relevant content.
23(B) Identify the specific nature of the rela-
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24tionship (such as a paid promotion, sponsored,
25or affiliate partnership).
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1(C) Retained if the conversation is saved,
2exported, or shared.
3(D) Not obscured by design, color, font
4size, or placement.
5(E) With regard to a voice-based covered
6tool, delivered without any audio effect that re-
7duces salience (such as a lower volume or pitch
8shift).
9(b) PROHIBITED PRACTICES.—A covered entity may
  10 not allow a covered tool to do the following:
11(1) Instruct an AI system to deny being AI or
12be in a commercial relationship, when directly asked.
13(2) Use design patterns that obscure or mini-
14mize required disclosures.
15(3) Present sponsored content as the product of
16organic AI reasoning when the content is not.
17(c) OPERATOR OBLIGATIONS.—
18(1) COMMERCIAL ARRANGEMENT REGISTRY RE-
19QUIRED.—A covered entity shall maintain an inter-
20nal registry of each third-party commercial arrange-
21ment that influences AI-generated content, updated
22in real time.
23(2) REQUIREMENT TO CONFIRM COMMERCIAL
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24ARRANGEMENT.—A  covered entity shall provide a
25user with the ability to ask, in a given session or
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1conversation, whether any response the user received
2was subject to a commercial arrangement.
3(d) FTC RULEMAKING AUTHORITY.—Not later than
  4 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and
  5 every 3 years thereafter (to account for changes in AI
  6 technology), the Commission shall issue regulations, under
  7 section 553 of title 5, United States Code, as the Commis-
  8 sion determines necessary to carry out the provisions of
  9 this Act.
10(e) ENFORCEMENT BY FEDERAL TRADE COMMIS-
11    SION.—
12(1) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC-
13TICES.—A violation of this section or a regulation
14promulgated under this section shall be treated as a
15violation of a regulation under section 18(a)(1)(B)
16of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C.
1757a(a)(1)(B)) regarding unfair or deceptive acts or
18practices.
19(2) POWERS  OF        COMMISSION.—The  Federal
20Trade Commission shall enforce this section and any
21regulation promulgated under this section in the
22same manner, by the same means, and with the
23same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all
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24applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade
25Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incor-
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1porated into and made a part of this section. Any
2person who violates this section or a regulation pro-
3mulgated under this section shall be subject to the
4penalties and entitled to the privileges and immuni-
5ties provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act.
6(f) ACTIONS BY STATES.—
7(1) IN GENERAL.—In any case in which the at-
8torney general of a State, or an official or agency of
9a State, has reason to believe that an interest of the
10residents of such State has been or is threatened or
11adversely affected by an act or practice in violation
12of this section or a regulation promulgated under
13this section, the State, as parens patriae, may bring
14a civil action on behalf of the residents of the State
15in an appropriate State court or an appropriate dis-
16trict court of the United States to—
17(A) enjoin such act or practice;
18(B) enforce compliance with such sub-
19section or such regulation;
20(C) obtain damages, restitution, or other
21compensation on behalf of residents of the
22State; or
23(D) obtain such other legal and equitable
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24relief as the court may consider to be appro-
25priate.
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1(2) NOTICE.—Before filing an action under this
2subsection, the attorney general, official, or agency
3of the State involved shall provide to the Federal
4Trade Commission a written notice of such action
5and a copy of the complaint for such action. If the
6attorney general, official, or agency determines that
7it is not feasible to provide the notice described in
8this paragraph before the filing of the action, the at-
9torney general, official, or agency shall provide writ-
10ten notice of the action and a copy of the complaint
11to the Federal Trade Commission immediately upon
12the filing of the action.
13(3) AUTHORITY OF FEDERAL TRADE COMMIS-
14SION.—
15(A) IN  GENERAL.—On  receiving notice
16under paragraph (2) of an action under this
17subsection, the Federal Trade Commission shall
18have the right—
19(i) to intervene in the action;
20(ii) upon so intervening, to be heard
21on all matters arising therein; and
22(iii) to file petitions for appeal.
23(B) LIMITATION ON STATE ACTION WHILE
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24FEDERAL ACTION IS PENDING.—If the Federal
25Trade Commission or the Attorney General of
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1the United States has instituted a civil action
2for violation of subsection (a) or a regulation
3promulgated under such subsection (referred to
4in this subparagraph as the ‘‘Federal action’’),
5no State attorney general, official, or agency
6may bring an action under this subsection dur-
7ing the pendency of the Federal action against
8any defendant named in the complaint in the
9Federal action for any violation of such sub-
10section or regulation alleged in such complaint.
11(4) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—For purposes of
12bringing a civil action under this subsection, nothing
13in this section may be construed to prevent an attor-
14ney general, official, or agency of a State from exer-
15cising the powers conferred on the attorney general,
16official, or agency by the laws of such State to con-
17duct investigations, administer oaths and affirma-
18tions, or compel the attendance of witnesses or the
19production of documentary and other evidence.
20(g) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—
21(1) IN GENERAL.—A person injured by an act
22or practice in violation of this section or a regulation
23promulgated under this section may bring in an ap-
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24propriate State court or an appropriate district court
25of the United States—
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1(A) an action to enjoin the violation;
2(B) an action to recover damages for ac-
3tual monetary loss from the violation, or to re-
4ceive up to $1,000 in damages for each such
5violation, whichever is greater; or
6(C) both such actions.
7(2) WILLFUL OR KNOWING VIOLATIONS.—If the
8court finds that the defendant acted willfully or
9knowingly in committing a violation described in
10paragraph (1), the court may, in its discretion, in-
11crease the amount of the award to an amount equal
12to not more than 3 times the amount available
13under paragraph (1)(B).
14(3) COSTS AND ATTORNEY’S FEES.—The court
15shall award to a prevailing plaintiff in an action
16under this subsection the costs of such action and
17reasonable attorney’s fees, as determined by the
18court.
19(4) LIMITATION.—An action may be com-
20menced under this subsection not later than 2 years
21after the date on which the person first discovered
22or had a reasonable opportunity to discover the vio-
23lation.
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1(5) NONEXCLUSIVE REMEDY.—The remedy pro-
2vided by this subsection shall be in addition to any
3other remedies available to the person.
4(h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
5(1) AI.—The term ‘‘AI’’ has the meaning given
6that term in section 5002 of the National Artificial
7Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).
8(2) AI  CHATBOT.—The  term ‘‘AI chatbot’’
9means any software system that uses a large lan-
10guage model or similar technology to generate con-
11versational responses to user queries that is made
12available to the public.
13(3) COMMERCIAL  ARRANGEMENT.—The  term
14‘‘commercial arrangement’’ means an exchange of
15money, data, preferential access, or other consider-
16ation that influences the content of an AI-generated
17response.
18(4) COVERED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘covered en-
19tity’’ means any person, company, or organization
20that deploys or operates a covered tool for consumer-
21facing use with more than 50,000 monthly active
22users.
23(5)       COVERED  TOOL.—The  term  ‘‘covered
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24tool’’—
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1(A) means an AI interactive computer
2service or software application that—
3(i) generates responses that are not
4fully predetermined; and
5(ii) accepts open-ended natural-lan-
6guage or multimodal user input and pro-
7duces adaptive or context-responsive out-
8put; and
9(B) includes an AI chatbot and a genera-
10tive search synthesis feature.
11(6) GENERATIVE  SEARCH  SYNTHESIS  FEA-
12TURE.—The term ‘‘generative search synthesis fea-
13ture’’—
14(A) means any feature of an online search
15engine or information-retrieval service that uses
16a large language model or similar technology to
17produce, in response to a search by the user, a
18synthesized narrative answer, summary, or rec-
19ommendation that is displayed to the user in
20lieu of, or more prominently than, the ranked
21list of hyperlinks to third-party sources that the
22service would otherwise return; and
23(B) includes any feature that generates the
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24answer, summary, or recommendations de-
25scribed in subparagraph (A) automatically as
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1part of a standard results page, regardless of
2whether the user separately requested a sum-
3mary and whether source citations accompany
4the generated output.
5(7) SPONSORED CONTENT.—The term ‘‘spon-
6sored content’’ means an AI-generated response
7that—
8(A) mentions, recommends, or promotes a
9specific product, service, or entity; and
10(B) is produced in whole or in part due to
11a commercial arrangement between the covered
12entity and a third party.
13(8) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of
14the several States, the District of Columbia, each
15commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United
16States, and each federally recognized Indian Tribe.
17(9) VOICE-BASED COVERED TOOLS.—The term
18‘‘voice-based covered tools’’ means a covered tool
19that delivers responses primarily through AI-gen-
20erated speech.
21(i) RELATION TO OTHER LAWS.—
22(1) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this
23section may be construed to limit the authority of
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24the Commission, the Federal Communications Com-
25mission, or State consumer protection agencies.
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1(2) PREEMPTION.—This section does not pre-
2empt a State law that provides greater consumer
3protection related to a covered tool.
4(j) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall take effect
  5 12 months after the date of the enactment of this section.
  Æ
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