FTC gets power to force companies to pay back harmed people
H.R. 10003 — Consumer Protection and Recovery Act · Filed by Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill gives the FTC more power to punish firms that break the law. The FTC can now ask courts to order firms to give money back to people they cheated. Courts can also cancel unfair deals, return property, and make firms hand over illegal profits. The bill covers violations from the past 10 years. It also covers cases already in court or filed later.
Who it affects
People who were cheated by firms gain stronger ways to get their money back. The FTC can now force refunds instead of only fining firms. Firms that break the law face bigger penalties.
One thing to notice
The bill lets the FTC go after old violations from the past 10 years. Courts can order firms to pay back all illegal profits with no limit on the amount.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Jul 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 30, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- refunds — Money a firm must give back to people it harmed or cheated.
- illegal profits — Money a firm made by breaking the law that it must hand over.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,656 characters) on Jul 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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