AI AGENT Act of 2026

This Act may be cited as the “Artificial Intelligence Access, Gatekeeper Exchange, and Nondiscriminatory Transfer Act of 2026” or the “AI AGENT Act of 2026”.

In this Act:

(1) Artificial intelligence; artificial intelligence system.— The terms artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence system have the meanings given those terms, respectively, in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).

(2) Commission.— The term Commission means the Federal Trade Commission.

(3) Custodial user agent.— The term custodial user agent means a software-based agent that is expressly authorized by a user to interact with a large online platform provider on that user’s behalf in a transparent, documented, scope-limited, and revocable manner.

(4) Custodial user agent provider.— The term custodial user agent provider—

(A) means any entity that operates or offers 1 or more custodial user agents; and

(B) includes a user who operates a custodial user agent on the user’s own behalf and not on behalf of any other user.

(5) Electronic commerce.— The term electronic commerce has the meaning given that term in section 2301 of title 41, United States Code.

(6) Interoperability interface.— The term interoperability interface means an electronic interface maintained by a large online platform for purposes of achieving interoperability.

(7) Large online platform.— The term large online platform means a product, application, or service provided by an online platform that has more than 50,000,000 customers or subscribers in the United States in any calendar month during the preceding 12-month period.

(8) Large online platform provider.— The term large online platform provider means an online provider that provides, manages, or controls a large online platform.

(9) Online provider.— The term online provider means a consumer-facing communications, retail, or information services provider, including a provider of social media, electronic commerce, personal finance, or artificial intelligence services.

(10) Open protocol.— The term open protocol means a publicly available technical standard that—

(A) enables interoperability and data exchange between large online platforms;

(B) is free from—

(i) licensing fees; and

(ii) patent restrictions; and

(C) governs how large online platforms communicate and exchange data with each other.

(11) Social graph data.— The term social graph data means data that represents a person’s connections and interactions within a social media service, including—

(A) content generated by the person;

(B) the person's responses to the content of other users and entities, including comments, reactions, mentions, reposts, shares, and other engagements in a manner that excludes content of third-party users;

(C) the person’s public profile;

(D) metadata associated with the content and interactions under subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C); and

(E) relational references sufficient to maintain the associations among data elements described in subparagraphs (A) through (D).

(12) Social media service.— The term social media service means a website, online or mobile application, operating system, digital assistant, or online service that predominantly provides a community forum for user-generated content, such as sharing videos, images, games, audio files, or other content.

(13) User data.—

(A) In general.— The term user data means information that is—

(i) collected or otherwise processed, directly or indirectly, by an online provider; and

(ii) linked, or reasonably linkable, to a specific person.

(B) Exclusion.— The term user data does not include information that is rendered wholly unusable or unreadable.

(C) Social media services.— For large online platforms that are social media services, the term user data includes social graph data.

(a) Individual's right of delegation.— Each end user of a large online platform shall have the right to designate 1 or more custodial user agents offered by a custodial user agent provider acting in compliance with subsection (d), as the user’s authorized representative to manage the user’s online interactions, electronic commerce decisions, user-generated content, and account settings on a large online platform on the same terms as a user, as rendered by that large online platform.

(b) General duty of large online platform providers.— A large online platform provider shall maintain a set of transparent third-party-accessible interfaces by which a user may delegate a custodial user agent to manage the user’s online interactions, electronic commerce decisions, user-generated content, and account settings on a large online platform on the same terms as a user.

(c) Authentication.— Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall establish rules and procedures to facilitate a custodial user agent’s ability to obtain access pursuant to subsection (a) in a way that ensures that—

(1) a request for access on behalf of a user is a verifiable request; and

(2) a user has a transparent, easily implementable method to revoke a prior delegation, including a mechanism to promptly communicate revocation requests to a large online platform provider.

(d) Registration with the Commission.—

(1) In general.— A custodial user agent provider shall register with the Commission as a condition of, and prior to, any custodial user agent operated or offered by that provider accessing an interface described in subsection (a). The Commission may establish uniform terms and scope of service, by which a custodial user agent provider may register through self-attestation. Not later than 180 days after the date of submission of a registration under this paragraph, the Commission, or any recognized certification body described in paragraph (4), shall evaluate the registration.

(2) Commission authority.— The Commission may establish specialized terms of service, including authorized scope of delegated access, appropriate for custodial user agents in specific commercial settings given the privacy, financial security, and personal safety implications of such access.

(3) Embedded agents.— The Commission may establish specialized terms of service, including ensuring functional equivalence for competing custodial user agents, for any custodial user agent provided by a large online platform provider that it determines to offer a service that is competitive with the service of other custodial user agents.

(4) Recognized certification bodies.—

(A) In general.— The Commission may recognize 1 or more independent certification bodies that—

(i) maintain and publish standards of conduct, governance, and technical practices for custodial user agents that meet or exceed the duties established under subsection (g); and

(ii) conduct periodic assessments of conformity with those standards described in clause (i).

(B) Effect of certification.— Certification in good standing by a recognized certification body shall constitute a rebuttable presumption of compliance with subsections (g) and shall be considered by the Commission in any related proceeding.

(C) Independence.— The Commission shall not recognize a certification body that is owned or controlled by, or that derives a majority of its revenue from, any single custodial user agent provider or large online platform provider.

(e) Deregistration by the Commission.— The Commission shall establish rules and procedures to deregister a custodial user agent provider that the Commission determines—

(1) has violated the duties established under subsection (g); or

(2) operates or offers a custodial user agent that has violated the duties established under subsection (g).

(f) Revocation of access rights.— A large online platform provider may revoke or deny access for any custodial user agent—

(1) the custodial user agent provider of which fails to register with the Commission;

(2) that repeatedly facilitates fraudulent or malicious activity; or

(3) for which a customer has revoked express written consent, pursuant to a method established under subsection (c)(2).

(g) Duties of a custodial user agent.—

(1) In general.— A custodial user agent—

(A) shall reasonably safeguard the privacy and security of user data provided to it by a user, or accessed on a user’s behalf;

(B) shall not access or manage a user’s online interactions, electronic commerce decisions, financial accounts, content, or account settings in any way that—

(i) will benefit the custodial user agent to the detriment of the user;

(ii) will result in any reasonably foreseeable harm to the user; or

(iii) is inconsistent with the directions or reasonable expectations of the user;

(C) shall not collect, use, or share any user data provided to it by a user, or accessed on a user’s behalf, except as reasonably necessary to provide the services the user has delegated to the custodial user agent, and shall not use, share, or retain such data for advertising, behavioral profiling, sale, or any other secondary commercial purpose;

(D) shall act with the care, skill, and diligence that an ordinarily prudent person would reasonably be expected to exercise in a like position and under similar circumstances;

(E) shall maintain real-time records of actions taken on the user’s behalf and make such records available to the user upon request, with the exception of any records that a user has previously directed a custodial user agent to delete; and

(F) shall not delegate, assign, or otherwise transfer any authority granted by a user to any other entity, agent, or artificial intelligence system operated by another entity unless—

(i) such delegation, assignment, or transfer is pursuant to the express, specific, and revocable authorization of the user; and

(ii) any such permitted delegate, assignee, or transferree is subject to the duties established under this subsection to the same extent as the custodial user agent.

(2) Responsibility of provider.— A custodial user agent provider shall establish and maintain reasonable measures to ensure that each custodial user agent it operates or offers complies with the duties under this subsection, and a pattern or practice of violations by any custodial user agent of a provider shall be attributable to the custodial user agent provider for purposes of deregistration under subsection (e) and enforcement under section 4.

(3) Non-waiver.— The duties established under this subsection may not be waived, limited, or modified by contract, by terms of service, or by any form of user consent, and a user’s reasonable expectations for purposes of paragraph (1)(B)(iii) shall be determined without regard to any term of service inconsistent with such duties.

(h) Non-Discrimination.—

(1) In general.— A large online platform provider shall facilitate and maintain an interface accessible to custodial user agents based on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms.

(2) Reasonable thresholds, access standards, and fees.—

(A) In general.— A large online platform provider may establish reasonable thresholds related to the frequency, nature, and volume of requests by a custodial user agent to access resources maintained by the large online platform provider, beyond which the large online platform provider may assess a reasonable fee for such access.

(B) Usage expectations.— A large online platform provider may establish fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory usage expectations to govern access by custodial user agents, including fees or usage limitations for custodial user agent providers that exceed those usage expectations.

(C) Limitation on fees and usage expectations.—

(i) In general.— Any fee, usage limitation, or usage expectation established under subparagraph (A) or (B) shall be reasonably proportional to the cost, complexity, and risk to the large online platform provider of providing such access.

(ii) Review.— A custodial user agent provider may petition the Commission to review the reasonableness of any fee, usage limitation, or usage expectation established under subparagraph (A) or (B).

(D) Notice.— A large online platform provider shall provide public notice of any fees, usage limitation, or usage expectations established under subparagraph (A) or (B), including reasonable advance notice of any changes.

(E) Security and privacy standards.—

(i) Reasonable Access Standards.—

(I) In general.— A large online platform provider shall, consistent with industry best practices, set privacy and security standards for access by custodial user agents to the extent reasonably necessary to address a threat to the large online platform or user data, and shall report any suspected violations of those standards to the Commission.

(II) Filing with Commission; public accessibility.— A large online platform provider shall file the privacy and security standards developed under subclause (I) with the Commission, which the Commission shall make publicly available.

(ii) Report and Appeal of Denied Access.—

(I) Report to Commission upon denial.— A large online platform provider that denies access to a custodial user agent under standards set pursuant to clause (i) shall submit to the Commission, in such form the Commission requires, a report describing the basis for the denial.

(II) Notification of denial.— A large online platform provider that denies access to a custodial user agent under standards set pursuant to clause (i) shall provide the custodial user agent provider a notice containing rationale for why the custodial user agent failed to meet the privacy and security standards.

(III) Period to Cure.— A large online platform provider that denies access to a custodial user agent under the standards set pursuant to clause (i) shall allow the custodial user agent provider 14 calendar days to meet such standards, during which period the large online platform provider may deny the custodial user agent access until such time as the custodial user agent provider can demonstrate that the custodial user agent meets such standards.

(IV) Appeal of denial.— A custodial user agent provider may appeal a denial under this subparagraph to the Commission and the Commission may grant access to the custodial user agent if the Commission finds that the denial by the large online platform provider was arbitrary, capricious, or not supported by the information submitted by the large online platform provider.

(V) Publicly available reports.— Each report submitted under this section shall be publicly available with personally identifiable information and business sensitive data removed.

(3) Prohibited changes to interfaces.— A change to an interface or terms of use made with the purpose, or substantial effect, of unreasonably denying access or undermining access by authorized custodial user agents shall be considered a violation of the duty under paragraph (1) to facilitate and maintain access based on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms.

(4) Functional equivalence.— A large online platform provider that maintains interoperability between its own large online platform and other products, services, or affiliated offerings of such provider that constitute a custodial user service shall offer a functionally equivalent version of that interface to competing custodial user agents.

(5) Interface information.—

(A) In general.— Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, a large online platform provider shall disclose to competing custodial user agent providers complete and accurate documentation describing access to the interoperability interface required under this section.

(B) Contents.— The documentation required under subparagraph (A)—

(i) is limited to interface documentation necessary to achieve development and operation of interoperable products and services; and

(ii) does not require the disclosure of the source code of a large online platform.

(6) Notice of changes.— A large online platform provider shall provide reasonable advance notice to any custodial user agent provider, which may be provided through public notice, of any change to an interface maintained by the large online platform provider that will affect the interoperability of a custodial user agent.

(i) Fees.— A custodial user agent provider may charge users a fee for the provision of the products or services described in subsection (a).

(j) Extent of access rights.— Nothing in this section shall be construed to confer greater rights of access for a custodial user agent to a large online platform than are accessible to a user.

(a) Regulations.— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission, in coordination with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, shall promulgate regulations to implement this Act.

(b) Authentication.— Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission, in consultation with relevant industry stakeholders, shall establish rules and procedures to facilitate the verification of the validity of requests from custodial user agents to obtain user data on behalf of a user.

(c) Technical standards.— Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology shall identify open protocols, or develop and publish model technical standards if no such protocols exist, by which to make popular classes of online services more accessible to custodial user agents, including—

(1) online messaging;

(2) multimedia sharing and social media services;

(3) electronic commerce;

(4) personal finance;

(5) artificial intelligence; and

(6) verifiable delegation, including—

(A) open protocols and standards for scope-limited and revocable delegation credentials;

(B) verification of custodial user agent identity and registration status;

(C) real-time communication and effectuation of revocation; and

(D) the creation of auditable records of actions taken by custodial user agents on behalf of users.

(d) Compliance assessment.— The Commission shall regularly assess compliance by large online platform providers and custodial user agents with the provisions of this Act.

(e) Complaints.— The Commission shall establish procedures under which a user, a large online platform provider, or a custodial user agent may file a complaint alleging that a large online platform provider or a custodial user agent has violated this Act.

(f) Enforcement.—

(1) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices.— A violation of this Act, or regulations enacted pursuant to this Act, shall be treated as a violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)).

(2) Powers of commission.—

(A) In general.— Except as provided in subparagraph (C), the Commission shall enforce this Act in the same manner, by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were incorporated into and made a part of this Act.

(B) Privileges and immunities.— Except as provided in subparagraph (C), any person who violates section 3 shall be subject to the penalties and entitled to the privileges and immunities provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.).

(C) Nonprofit organizations and common carriers.— Notwithstanding section 4 or 5(a)(2) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 44, 45(a)(2)) or any jurisdictional limitation of the Commission, the Commission shall also enforce this Act, in the same manner provided in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this paragraph, with respect to common carriers subject to the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.).

(D) Fines.— In assessing any fine for a violation of this Act, the Commission shall consider each individual user affected by a violation of this Act as an individual violation.

(g) Interagency coordination.— Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall establish an interagency working group, consisting of the Commission, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Commerce, the Attorney General, and the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, for the purpose of developing proposals to prevent harms to businesses and the Government resulting from custodial user agents undertaking actions on behalf of a principal as a result of fraud, misuse, or genuine mistake.

(h) Preemption.— The provisions of this Act shall preempt any State law only to the extent that such State law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Act.

(i) Effective date.— This Act shall take effect on the earlier of—

(1) date on which the Commission promulgates regulations under subsection (a); or

(2) 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act.

(a) Privacy and security laws.— Nothing in this Act shall be construed to modify, limit, or supersede the operation of any privacy or security provision in—

(1) section 552a of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as the “Privacy Act of 1974”);

(2) the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978 (12 U.S.C. 3401 et seq.);

(3) the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.);

(4) the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.);

(5) the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (15 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.);

(6) title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.);

(7) chapters 119, 123, and 206 of title 18, United States Code;

(8) section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g) (commonly referred to as the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974”);

(9) section 445 of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232h);

(10) the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 2000aa et seq.);

(11) the regulations promulgated under section 264(c) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 1320d–2 note), as those regulations relate to—

(A) a person described in section 1172(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–1(a)); or

(B) transactions referred to in section 1173(a)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d–2(a)(1));

(12) the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (47 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.);

(13) sections 222 and 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 222, 227); or

(14) any other privacy or security provision of Federal law.

(b) Antitrust laws.—

(1) In general.— Nothing in this Act shall be construed to modify, impair, or supersede the operation of any of the antitrust laws.

(2) Antitrust laws defined.— The term antitrust laws—

(A) has the meaning given that term in subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12(a)); and

(B) includes section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent that section applies to unfair methods of competition.