Citation[]
Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), Pub. L. No. 111-345, 124 Stat. 3618 (Dec. 2010), codified at 15 U.S.C. §8402.
Overview[]
The Act is intended to boost consumer confidence in e-commerce by banning certain Internet sale practices. The law was enacted primarily to protect consumers from "data passing" — consumers unknowingly authorizing a merchant to transfer the consumer's payment information to another merchant for a separate online sale without otherwise requiring the consumer to reenter payment information.
The Act (1) prohibits and prevents Internet-based post-transaction third party sales and (2) imposes specific requirements on negative option features.
Under the Act, it is unlawful for an initial merchant to disclose a credit card, debit card, bank account or other financial account number, or to disclose other billing information used to charge a customer of the initial merchant, to any post-transaction third party seller for use in an Internet-based sale of any goods or services from that post-transaction third party seller.
The Act prohibits any person from charging or attempting to charge any consumer for goods or services over the Internet through a negative option feature, unless the person (1) clearly and conspicuously discloses the material terms of the transaction before obtaining billing information; (2) obtains the consumer's express informed consent before charging the consumer; and (3) provides "simple mechanisms" for a consumer to stop recurring charges.