House Floor Reviews Measure to Mask Credit-Card Numbers on Electronic Receipts

Lawmakers took up first substitute Senate Bill 6 on the House floor, a consumer-protection measure intended to reduce opportunities for identity theft by limiting the information printed on electronically produced transaction receipts. The bill’s sponsor described seeing a restaurant receipt that included the full 15-digit credit card number and expiration date, and said the measure would prevent most electronically printed receipts from showing more than the last five digits.

Sponsor remarks outlined an implementation date of January 2004 to allow businesses and vendors time to reprogram terminals. The sponsor said the change is "a great protection for the consumer," and noted it would not apply to handwritten or old-style imprint machines used occasionally by small organizations. The sponsor also reported the bill had been developed with input from retailers and trade groups and said it was supported by the Retail Merchants Association, the Hospitality Association, the Hotel and Lodging Association and the Medical Association.

A member of the House pointed to portable card-scanning devices as a particular threat, saying those devices could be used to capture full card numbers while handling a customer’s card; the member argued the bill would help make such uses illegal and reduce identity-theft risk.

The House opened voting on the substitute measure after debate; the transcript excerpt shows voting was called but does not include a final roll-call tally in the provided segments.

Why it matters: The bill addresses a common means of identity exposure at retail points of sale, aligns consumer protections with industry practice around masking card data, and provides a transition period for implementation to reduce disruption to small businesses.