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House passes bill to bar use of firearm-specific merchant codes for transaction tracking
Summary
The House approved HB38 to restrict payment card networks from using merchant category codes that identify firearms purchases and to prohibit related recordkeeping and discrimination against merchants; the bill includes civil penalties and a private right of action and will be sent to the Senate.
Raleigh — The North Carolina House passed House Bill 38, the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act on its second and third readings and ordered it sent to the Senate. Sponsors framed the bill as a consumer-privacy measure to prevent use of payment-card merchant codes to single out firearms purchases.
Representative Pirtle, who offered and described a sponsor amendment to the definition of "firearms merchant," said the bill "reaffirms the constitutional right to bear arms" and seeks to prevent payment networks from using newly assigned merchant-category codes to surveil lawful purchases. "It prohibits the use of firearm codes for transactions in North Carolina," Pirtle said, summarizing key provisions that would bar recordkeeping of residents' firearm ownership by payment networks and prohibit discrimination against firearm merchants based on code designation.
Floor debate included a description of enforcement and remedies: the North Carolina Attorney General may investigate and impose civil penalties up to $5,000 per offense with proceeds to the state forfeiture fund; the bill also provides a private civil remedy, with statutory damages of $10,000 per violation, costs and attorney fees, and a three-year statute of limitations for discovery of violations, according to the sponsor's floor remarks.
Supporters urged a green vote, saying more than a dozen other states had enacted similar laws. The committee substitute and subsequent readings passed; the clerk recorded votes on the floor and the bill was ordered engrossed and sent to the Senate.
The text recorded on the floor identifies enforcement by the Attorney General and a private right of action for individuals and merchants; those provisions were central to sponsor remarks.
