H.R.4640 Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act of 2025

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2025-07-23

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Compromise of privacy
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Unequal performance across groups
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Increased inequality and decline in employment
• Competitive dynamics
• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 8 subdomains, with strong focus on surveillance and privacy (2.1, 4.1), transparency (7.4), and economic concerns (1.1, 1.3, 6.2). Coverage is concentrated in privacy, surveillance prevention, algorithmic fairness, and transparency domains related to pricing and wage discrimination.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Information
• Accommodation, Food & Other Services

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Agriculture, Mining, Construction & Manufacturing
• Finance & Insurance
• Real Estate, Rental & Leasing
• Professional & Technical Services
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Management, Administrative & Support Services
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Arts, Entertainment & Recreation
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This legislation governs AI use across virtually all economic sectors, as it applies to any 'person engaged in commerce' using automated decision systems for pricing or wage-setting. The broadest impact is on retail trade, e-commerce, hospitality, transportation, and any employment sectors, with explicit inclusion of common carriers (telecommunications/utilities) and nonprofit organizations.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding Congressional bill (H.R.4640) with mandatory prohibitions, explicit enforcement mechanisms through federal agencies (FTC, EEOC), state actions, and private rights of action, with specified monetary penalties.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: This is a Congressional bill (H.R.4640) enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, as indicated by the legislative format and enactment clause.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Deployer
• Summary: The bill explicitly targets any 'person engaged in commerce' who uses automated decision systems for surveillance-based price or wage setting, with specific inclusion of common carriers and nonprofits.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The bill explicitly designates the FTC to enforce price-setting prohibitions, the EEOC to enforce wage-setting prohibitions, and grants state attorneys general authority to bring civil actions on behalf of residents.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, Affected_Stakeholder
• Summary: The bill creates monitoring mechanisms through enforcement agencies and empowers individuals and states to monitor compliance through private rights of action and state enforcement powers.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily focuses on the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle, requiring transparency procedures before deployment and ongoing accuracy verification during operation. There is minimal coverage of earlier stages like planning, data collection, or model building.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly covers 'automated decision systems' broadly defined to include AI systems using machine learning, statistics, and data processing techniques. It does not distinguish between frontier AI, general purpose AI, or task-specific AI, applying uniformly to all automated decision systems used for pricing or wage-setting. No compute thresholds or distinctions between open-weight and closed models are mentioned.