114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5111 
AN ACT 
To prohibit the use of certain clauses in form contracts 
that restrict the ability of a consumer to communicate 
regarding the goods or services offered in interstate com-
merce that were the subject of the contract, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Consumer Review 
Fairness Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. CONSUMER REVIEW PROTECTION. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 
means the Federal Trade Commission. 
(2) COVERED
COMMUNICATION.—The term 
‘‘covered communication’’ means a written, oral, or 
pictorial review, performance assessment of, or other 
similar analysis of, including by electronic means, 
the goods, services, or conduct of a person by an in-
dividual who is party to a form contract with respect 
to which such person is also a party. 
(3) FORM CONTRACT.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 
subparagraph (B), the term ‘‘form contract’’ 
means a contract with standardized terms— 
(i) used by a person in the course of 
selling or leasing the person’s goods or 
services; and 
(ii) imposed on an individual without 
a meaningful opportunity for such indi-
vidual to negotiate the standardized terms.
(B) EXCEPTION.—The term ‘‘form con-
tract’’ does not include an employer-employee 
or independent contractor contract. 
(4) PICTORIAL.—The term ‘‘pictorial’’ includes 
pictures, photographs, video, illustrations, and sym-
bols. 
(b) INVALIDITY OF CONTRACTS THAT IMPEDE CON-
SUMER REVIEWS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graphs (2) and (3), a provision of a form contract 
is void from the inception of such contract if such 
provision— 
(A) prohibits or restricts the ability of an 
individual who is a party to the form contract 
to engage in a covered communication; 
(B) imposes a penalty or fee against an in-
dividual who is a party to the form contract for 
engaging in a covered communication; or 
(C) transfers or requires an individual who 
is a party to the form contract to transfer to 
any person any intellectual property rights in 
review or feedback content, with the exception 
of a non-exclusive license to use the content, 
that the individual may have in any otherwise 
lawful covered communication about such per-
son or the goods or services provided by such 
person. 
(2) RULE
OF
CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 
paragraph (1) shall be construed to affect— 
(A) any duty of confidentiality imposed by 
law (including agency guidance); 
(B) any civil cause of action for defama-
tion, libel, or slander, or any similar cause of 
action; 
(C) any party’s right to remove or refuse 
to display publicly on an Internet website or 
webpage owned, operated, or otherwise con-
trolled by such party any content of a covered 
communication that— 
(i) contains the personal information 
or likeness of another person, or is libel-
ous, harassing, abusive, obscene, vulgar, 
sexually explicit, or is inappropriate with 
respect to race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, 
or other intrinsic characteristic; 
(ii) is unrelated to the goods or serv-
ices offered by or available at such party’s 
Internet website or webpage; or 
(iii) is clearly false or misleading; or
(D) a party’s right to establish terms and 
conditions with respect to the creation of photo-
graphs or video of such party’s property when 
those photographs or video are created by an 
employee or independent contractor of a com-
mercial entity and solely intended for commer-
cial purposes by that entity. 
(3) EXCEPTIONS.—Paragraph (1) shall not 
apply to the extent that a provision of a form con-
tract prohibits disclosure or submission of, or re-
serves the right of a person or business that hosts 
online consumer reviews or comments to remove— 
(A) trade secrets or commercial or finan-
cial information obtained from a person and 
considered privileged or confidential; 
(B) personnel and medical files and similar 
information the disclosure of which would con-
stitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of per-
sonal privacy; 
(C) records or information compiled for 
law enforcement purposes, the disclosure of 
which would constitute a clearly unwarranted 
invasion of personal privacy; 
(D) content that is unlawful or otherwise 
meets the requirements of paragraph (2)(C); or
(E) content that contains any computer vi-
ruses, worms, or other potentially damaging 
computer code, processes, programs, applica-
tions, or files. 
(c) PROHIBITION.—It shall be unlawful for a person 
to offer a form contract containing a provision described 
as void in subsection (b). 
(d) ENFORCEMENT BY COMMISSION.— 
(1) UNFAIR
OR
DECEPTIVE
ACTS
OR
PRAC-
TICES.—A violation of subsection (c) by a person 
with respect to which the Commission is empowered 
under section 5(a)(2) of the Federal Trade Commis-
sion Act (15 U.S.C. 45(a)(2)) shall be treated as a 
violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act 
or practice prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of 
the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 
57a(a)(1)(B)). 
(2) POWERS OF COMMISSION.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall 
enforce this section in the same manner, by the 
same means, and with the same jurisdiction, 
powers, and duties as though all applicable 
terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were in-
corporated into and made a part of this Act.