U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) last week requested action by the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on his bipartisan proposal to combat online booking fraud.
Sen. Daines on July 23 sponsored the Stop Online Booking Scams Act of 2019, S. 2229, with original cosponsor U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) to protect American consumers from deceptive practices with respect to online booking of hotel reservations.
Since its introduction, S. 2229 has been under consideration in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.
Sens. Daines and Klobuchar sent an Oct. 31 letter to U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chairman of the committee, urging him to act and include their proposed bill in the committee’s next executive session.
“With the rise of online bookings has come an increase in online booking scams,” wrote Sen. Daines and his colleague. “Fraudulent websites give the appearance of being connected to a hotel, but actually have no relationship with them. Transactions through these sites often result in consumers paying for reservations that do not exist or that differ from available inventory at the hotels.”
The lawmakers wrote that S. 2229 “is a balanced, narrow, and needed solution that protects both consumers and legitimate online hotel booking sites from online bookings scams,” according to their letter.
If enacted, the bill would make it unlawful for a third-party online hotel reservation seller who is not affiliated with the hotel to advertise, promote or sell a reservation if the person states or implies that he or she is the actual owner or operator of the hotel, according to their letter, and would give state Attorneys General the authority to bring a civil action against companies that violate this provision, among others.
The identical bill, H.R. 3956, was introduced in July by U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) and cosponsored by U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). It remains under consideration in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.