Press Releases
Trahan Highlights Overwhelming Public Support for Bipartisan TLDR Act
Washington,
January 26, 2022
LOWELL, MA – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Consumer Protection Subcommittee, highlighted a new Morning Consult/Politico poll showing overwhelming support for key provisions within the Terms-of-service Labeling, Design and Readability (TLDR) Act. This bipartisan legislation, introduced by Trahan and Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), would require that online companies make their terms of service contracts easier for consumers to understand before clicking “Agree.” “Americans across the political spectrum agree – terms of service should be presented so that every person can understand how their data is being used and the rights they’re giving up when they click ‘Agree.’ Just as importantly, people also believe that the onus should not be on them to spend hours parsing an unnecessarily long and complex contract,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “Passage of the TLDR Act is a necessary and commonsense way to begin returning power to where it belongs – with consumers – and with such strong national support for the legislation, Congress has an obligation to get it across the finish line without delay.”
The polling unveiled today shows that a strong majority of Americans – more than 80 percent – support the commonsense provisions included in the TLDR Act, including 86 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 76 percent of Republicans. It also found that an overwhelming portion of individuals – nearly 9 out of every 10 voters – have “Agreed” to a company’s terms of service without reading them in the past, including 46 percent who “rarely” or “never” read them. The TLDR Act specifically targets unnecessarily complex terms of service agreements, sometimes referred to as “terms-of-use” or “end user license agreements,” which outline how a consumer may use a website or application. Studies and polling have found that most people do not read these contracts because of their length and complexity, which has resulted in some companies choosing to bury problematic policies that users unknowingly accept. To address the litany of issues with these contracts including the potential for future abuse, the TLDR Act requires that online companies, with the exception of small businesses, include a nutrition label-style summary table at the top of their terms of service and tag the full, long-form terms with XML tags, making the agreements more accessible and understandable for consumers and researchers alike. A full breakdown of the TLDR Act, including access to the bill text, one-page summary, and quotes of support from outside experts and organizations, can be accessed HERE. ### |
