II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4309 

To promote competition and reduce consumer switching costs in the provision 

of online communications services. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 25, 2022 

Mr. WARNER (for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. HAWLEY, 

and Ms. KLOBUCHAR) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 

and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To promote competition and reduce consumer switching costs 

in the provision of online communications services. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Augmenting Compat5 ibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act 

6 of 2022’’ or the ‘‘ACCESS Act of 2022’’. 

7 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

8 In this Act: 


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1 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

2 means the Federal Trade Commission. 

3 (2) COMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER.—The term 

4 ‘‘communications provider’’ means a consumer-fac5 ing communications and information services pro6 vider. 

7 (3) COMPETING COMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER.— 

8 The term ‘‘competing communications provider’’, 

9 with respect to a large communications platform 

10 provider, means another communications provider 

11 offering, or planning to offer, similar products or 

12 services to consumers. 

13 (4) COMPETING COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE.— 

14 The term ‘‘competing communications service’’, with 

15 respect to a large communications platform, means 

16 a similar product or service provided by a competing 

17 communications provider. 

18 (5) CUSTODIAL THIRD-PARTY AGENT.—The 

19 term ‘‘custodial third-party agent’’ means an entity 

20 that is duly authorized by a user to interact with a 

21 large communications platform provider on that 

22 user’s behalf to manage the user’s online inter23 actions, content, and account settings. 

24 (6) INTEROPERABILITY INTERFACE.—The term 

25 ‘‘interoperability interface’’ means an electronic 


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1 interface maintained by a large communications 

2 platform for purposes of achieving interoperability. 

3 (7) LARGE COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM.—The 

4 term ‘‘large communications platform’’ means a 

5 product or service provided by a communications 

6 provider that— 

7 (A) generates income, directly or indirectly, 

8 from the collection, processing, sale, or sharing 

9 of user data; and 

10 (B) has more than 100,000,000 monthly 

11 active users in the United States. 

12 (8) LARGE COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM PRO13 VIDER.—The term ‘‘large communications platform 

14 provider’’ means a communications provider that 

15 provides, manages, or controls a large communica16 tions platform. 

17 (9) USER DATA.— 

18 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘user data’’ 

19 means information that is— 

20 (i) collected directly by a communica21 tions provider; and 

22 (ii) linked, or reasonably linkable, to a 

23 specific person. 

24 (B) EXCLUSION.—The term ‘‘user data’’ 

25 does not include information that is rendered 


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1 unusable, unreadable, de-identified, or 

2 anonymized. 

3 SEC. 3. PORTABILITY. 

4 (a) GENERAL DUTY OF LARGE COMMUNICATIONS

5 PLATFORM PROVIDERS.—A large communications plat6 form provider shall, for each large communications plat7 form it operates, maintain a set of transparent, third8 party-accessible interfaces (including application program9 ming interfaces) to initiate the secure transfer of user data 

10 to a user, or to a competing communications provider act11 ing at the direction of a user, in a structured, commonly 

12 used, and machine-readable format. 

13 (b) GENERAL DUTY OF COMPETING COMMUNICA14 TIONS PROVIDERS.—A competing communications pro15 vider that receives ported user data from a large commu16 nications platform provider shall reasonably secure any 

17 user data it acquires. 

18 (c) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN SERVICES.—The obli19 gations under this section shall not apply to a product or 

20 service by which a large communications platform provider 

21 does not generate any income or other compensation, di22 rectly or indirectly, from collecting, using, or sharing user 

23 data. 


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1 SEC. 4. INTEROPERABILITY. 

2 (a) GENERAL DUTY OF LARGE COMMUNICATIONS

3 PLATFORM PROVIDERS.—A large communications plat4 form provider shall, for each large communications plat5 form it operates, maintain a set of transparent, third6 party-accessible interfaces (including application program7 ming interfaces) to facilitate and maintain technically 

8 compatible, interoperable communications with a user of 

9 a competing communications provider. 

10 (b) GENERAL DUTY OF COMPETING COMMUNICA11 TIONS PROVIDERS.—A competing communications pro12 vider that accesses an interoperability interface of a large 

13 communications platform provider shall reasonably secure 

14 any user data it acquires, processes, or transmits. 

15 (c) INTEROPERABILITY OBLIGATIONS FOR LARGE

16 COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM PROVIDERS.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—In order to achieve inter18 operability under subsection (a), a large communica19 tions platform provider shall fulfill the duties under 

20 paragraphs (2) through (6) of this subsection. 

21 (2) NON-DISCRIMINATION.— 

22 (A) IN GENERAL.—A large communica23 tions platform provider shall facilitate and 

24 maintain interoperability with competing com25 munications services for each of its large com26 munications platforms through an interoperVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:42 Jun 01, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4309.IS S4309

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1 ability interface, based on fair, reasonable, and 

2 nondiscriminatory terms. 

3 (B) REASONABLE THRESHOLDS, ACCESS

4 STANDARDS, AND FEES.— 

5 (i) IN GENERAL.—A large commu6 nications platform provider may establish 

7 reasonable thresholds related to the fre8 quency, nature, and volume of requests by 

9 a competing communications provider to 

10 access resources maintained by the large 

11 communications platform provider, beyond 

12 which the large communications platform 

13 provider may assess a reasonable fee for 

14 such access. 

15 (ii) USAGE EXPECTATIONS.—A large 

16 communications platform provider may es17 tablish fair, reasonable, and nondiscrim18 inatory usage expectations to govern access 

19 by competing communications providers, 

20 including fees or penalties for providers 

21 that exceed those usage expectations. 

22 (iii) LIMITATION ON FEES AND USAGE

23 EXPECTATIONS.—Any fees, penalties, or 

24 usage expectations assessed under clauses 

25 (i) and (ii) shall be reasonably proportional 


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1 to the cost, complexity, and risk to the 

2 large communications platform provider of 

3 providing such access. 

4 (iv) NOTICE.—A large communica5 tions platform provider shall provide public 

6 notice of any fees, penalties, or usage ex7 pectations that may be established under 

8 clauses (i) and (ii), including reasonable 

9 advance notice of any changes. 

10 (v) SECURITY AND PRIVACY STAND11 ARDS.—A large communications platform 

12 provider shall, consistent with industry 

13 best practices, set privacy and security 

14 standards for access by competing commu15 nications services to the extent reasonably 

16 necessary to address a threat to the large 

17 communications platform or user data, and 

18 shall report any suspected violations of 

19 those standards to the Commission. 

20 (C) PROHIBITED CHANGES TO INTER21 FACES.—A change to an interoperability inter22 face or terms of use made with the purpose, or 

23 substantial effect, of unreasonably denying ac24 cess or undermining interoperability for com25 peting communications services shall be considVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:42 Jun 01, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4309.IS S4309

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1 ered a violation of the duty under subparagraph 

2 (A) to facilitate and maintain interoperability 

3 based on fair, reasonable, and nondiscrim4 inatory terms. 

5 (3) FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE.—A large com6 munications platform provider that maintains inter7 operability between its own large communications 

8 platform and other products, services, or affiliated 

9 offerings of such provider shall offer a functionally 

10 equivalent version of that interface to competing 

11 communications services. 

12 (4) INTERFACE INFORMATION.— 

13 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 

14 days after the date of enactment of this Act, a 

15 large communications platform provider shall 

16 disclose to competing communications providers 

17 complete and accurate documentation describ18 ing access to the interoperability interface re19 quired under this section. 

20 (B) CONTENTS.—The documentation re21 quired under subparagraph (A)— 

22 (i) is limited to interface documenta23 tion necessary to achieve development and 

24 operation of interoperable products and 

25 services; and 


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1 (ii) does not require the disclosure of 

2 the source code of a large communications 

3 platform. 

4 (5) NOTICE OF CHANGES.—A large communica5 tions platform provider shall provide reasonable ad6 vance notice to a competing communications pro7 vider, which may be provided through public notice, 

8 of any change to an interoperability interface main9 tained by the large communications platform pro10 vider that will affect the interoperability of a com11 peting communications service. 

12 (6) NON-COMMERCIALIZATION BY A LARGE

13 COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM PROVIDER.—A large 

14 communications platform provider may not collect, 

15 use, or share user data obtained from a competing 

16 communications service through the interoperability 

17 interface except for the purposes of safeguarding the 

18 privacy and security of such information or main19 taining interoperability of services. 

20 (d) NON-COMMERCIALIZATION BY A COMPETING

21 COMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER.—A competing communica22 tions provider that accesses an interoperability interface 

23 may not collect, use, or share user data obtained from a 

24 large communications platform provider through the inter25 operability interface except for the purposes of safeVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:42 Jun 01, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4309.IS S4309

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1 guarding the privacy and security of such information or 

2 maintaining interoperability of services. 

3 (e) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN SERVICES.—The obli4 gations under this section shall not apply to a product or 

5 service by which a large communications platform provider 

6 does not generate any income or other compensation, di7 rectly or indirectly, from collecting, using, or sharing user 

8 data. 

9 SEC. 5. DELEGATABILITY. 

10 (a) GENERAL DUTY OF LARGE COMMUNICATIONS

11 PLATFORM PROVIDERS.—A large communications plat12 form provider shall maintain a set of transparent third13 party-accessible interfaces by which a user may delegate 

14 a custodial third-party agent to manage the user’s online 

15 interactions, content, and account settings on a large com16 munications platform on the same terms as a user. 

17 (b) AUTHENTICATION.—Not later than 180 days 

18 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission 

19 shall establish rules and procedures to facilitate a custo20 dial third-party agent’s ability to obtain access pursuant 

21 to subsection (a) in a way that ensures that a request for 

22 access on behalf of a user is a verifiable request. 

23 (c) REGISTRATION WITH THE COMMISSION.—A cus24 todial third-party agent shall register with the Commission 


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1 as a condition of, and prior to, accessing an interface de2 scribed in subsection (a). 

3 (d) DEREGISTRATION BY THE COMMISSION.—The 

4 Commission shall establish rules and procedures to 

5 deregister a custodial third-party agent that the Commis6 sion determines has violated the duties established in this 

7 section. 

8 (e) REVOCATION OF ACCESS RIGHTS.—A large com9 munications platform provider may revoke or deny access 

10 for any custodial third-party agent that— 

11 (1) fails to register with the Commission; or 

12 (2) repeatedly facilitates fraudulent or mali13 cious activity. 

14 (f) DUTIES OF A CUSTODIAL THIRD-PARTY

15 AGENT.—A custodial third-party agent— 

16 (1) shall reasonably safeguard the privacy and 

17 security of user data provided to it by a user, or 

18 accessed on a user’s behalf; 

19 (2) shall not access or manage a user’s online 

20 interactions, content, or account settings in any way 

21 that— 

22 (A) will benefit the custodial third-party 

23 agent to the detriment of the user; 

24 (B) will result in any reasonably foresee25 able harm to the user; or 


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1 (C) is inconsistent with the directions or 

2 reasonable expectations of the user; and 

3 (3) shall not collect, use, or share any user data 

4 provided to it by a user, or accessed on a user’s be5 half, for the commercial benefit of the custodial 

6 third-party agent. 

7 (g) FEES.—A custodial third-party agent may charge 

8 users a fee for the provision of the products or services 

9 described in subsection (a). 

10 (h) EXTENT OF ACCESS RIGHTS.—Nothing in this 

11 section shall be construed to confer greater rights of ac12 cess for a custodial third-party agent to a large commu13 nications platform than are accessible to a user. 

14 SEC. 6. IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT. 

15 (a) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the 

16 date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall pro17 mulgate regulations to implement section 4(c)(2)(B)(v) 

18 and subsections (b), (c), and (d) of section 5. 

19 (b) AUTHENTICATION.—Not later than 180 days 

20 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission, 

21 in consultation with relevant industry stakeholders, shall 

22 establish rules and procedures to facilitate the verification 

23 of the validity of requests from users and competing com24 munications providers to obtain user data under sections 

25 3(a) and 4(a). 


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1 (c) TECHNICAL STANDARDS.—Not later than 180 

2 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 

3 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

4 shall develop and publish model technical standards by 

5 which to make interoperable popular classes of commu6 nications or information services, including— 

7 (1) online messaging; 

8 (2) multimedia sharing; and 

9 (3) social networking. 

10 (d) COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT.—The Commission 

11 shall regularly assess compliance by large communications 

12 platform providers with the provisions of this Act. 

13 (e) COMPLAINTS.—The Commission shall establish 

14 procedures under which a user, a large communications 

15 platform provider, a competing communications provider, 

16 and a custodial third-party agent may file a complaint al17 leging that a large communications platform provider, a 

18 competing communication provider, or a custodial third19 party agent has violated this Act. 

20 (f) ENFORCEMENT.— 

21 (1) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC22 TICES.—A violation of this Act, or regulations en23 acted pursuant to this Act, shall be treated as a vio24 lation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act 

25 or practice prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of 


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1 the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 

2 57a(a)(1)(B)). 

3 (2) POWERS OF COMMISSION.— 

4 (A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

5 subparagraph (C), the Commission shall enforce 

6 this Act in the same manner, by the same 

7 means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, 

8 and duties as though all applicable terms and 

9 provisions of the Federal Trade Commission 

10 Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated 

11 into and made a part of this Act. 

12 (B) PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES.—Ex13 cept as provided in subparagraph (C), any per14 son who violates section 3 shall be subject to 

15 the penalties and entitled to the privileges and 

16 immunities provided in the Federal Trade Com17 mission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.). 

18 (C) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AND COM19 MON CARRIERS.—Notwithstanding section 4 or 

20 5(a)(2) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 

21 (15 U.S.C. 44, 45(a)(2)) or any jurisdictional 

22 limitation of the Commission, the Commission 

23 shall also enforce this Act, in the same manner 

24 provided in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this 

25 paragraph, with respect to common carriers 


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1 subject to the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

2 U.S.C. 151 et seq.). 

3 (D) FINES.—In assessing any fine for a 

4 violation of this Act, the Commission shall con5 sider each individual user affected by a violation 

6 of this Act as an individual violation. 

7 (g) RELIANCE ON OPEN STANDARDS.—Any large 

8 communications platform provider that establishes and 

9 maintains interoperability through an open standard es10 tablished under subsection (c) shall be entitled to a rebut11 table presumption of providing access on fair, reasonable, 

12 and nondiscriminatory terms. 

13 (h) PREEMPTION.—The provisions of this Act shall 

14 preempt any State law only to the extent that such State 

15 law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Act. 

16 (i) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall take effect on 

17 the date on which the Commission promulgates regula18 tions under subsection (a). 

19 SEC. 7. RELATION TO OTHER LAWS. 

20 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to modify, 

21 limit, or supersede the operation of any privacy or security 

22 provision in— 

23 (1) section 552a of title 5, United States Code 

24 (commonly known as the ‘‘Privacy Act of 1974’’); 


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1 (2) the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 

2 (12 U.S.C. 3401 et seq.); 

3 (3) the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 

4 1681 et seq.); 

5 (4) the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 

6 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.); 

7 (5) the Children’s Online Privacy Protection 

8 Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.); 

9 (6) title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 

10 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.); 

11 (7) chapters 119, 123, and 206 of title 18, 

12 United States Code; 

13 (8) section 444 of the General Education Provi14 sions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g) (commonly referred to 

15 as the ‘‘Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act 

16 of 1974’’); 

17 (9) section 445 of the General Education Provi18 sions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232h); 

19 (10) the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (42 

20 U.S.C. 2000aa et seq.); 

21 (11) the regulations promulgated under section 

22 264(c) of the Health Insurance Portability and Ac23 countability Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 1320d–2 note), 

24 as those regulations relate to— 


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1 (A) a person described in section 1172(a) 

2 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d– 

3 1(a)); or 

4 (B) transactions referred to in section 

5 1173(a)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 

6 U.S.C. 1320d–2(a)(1)); 

7 (12) the Communications Assistance for Law 

8 Enforcement Act (47 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.); 

9 (13) sections 222 and 227 of the Communica10 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 222, 227); or 

11 (14) any other privacy or security provision of 

12 Federal law. 

Æ 


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