House Bill Would Cap Marketplace Inventory and Fund Holds at 30 Days — Online Sellers' Bill of Rights Act (H.R. 9799)
H.R. 9799, the Online Sellers' Bill of Rights Act of 2026, was introduced in the House on July 21, 2026 by Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) with eight cosponsors, including Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), and referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. The bill would impose federal rules on large online marketplaces covering how they hold seller inventory and funds, how much notice they give before policy changes, and what they must tell a seller when they open an enforcement action. Nothing changes for sellers today — the bill is in committee and has not been enacted.
Real-World Impact
The bill's own numbers set the shape of the change: a hold on inventory or funds would be capped at 30 calendar days, notification would be due within 72 hours, policy changes would require 30 days' advance written notice, and the FTC would have 180 days after enactment to write the rules — with the Act itself effective 180 days after enactment. So even on the fastest path, the earliest any of these caps would bind is roughly six months after a signature.
Key Points
- Introduced July 21, 2026 as H.R. 9799 in the 119th Congress by Rep. Becca Balint (VT) with eight cosponsors; referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary
- Inventory holds: a covered marketplace could not hold, detain, or restrict access to a seller's inventory for more than 30 calendar days, and would have to notify the seller within 72 hours of the hold
- Fund holds: disbursement of a seller's funds could not be withheld for more than 30 calendar days unless the marketplace meets a preponderance-of-evidence standard, with the same 72-hour notification requirement
- Gating a product: sellers would get not less than 30 calendar days to sell through remaining stock
- Policy changes: not less than 30 days' advance written notice before a change is enforced
- Investigations: the marketplace would have to identify the specific policy alleged to be violated, the relevant facts and documentation, the proposed penalty, and the appeal procedure — and the bill places the burden of proof on the platform, not the seller
- Enforcement: the FTC would have 180 days after enactment to issue rules; a private action allows recovery of threefold damages; the Act would take effect 180 days after enactment
- The bill applies to a 'critical trading partner,' defined as any trading partner able to restrict or impede a business user's access to its users or customers — the text sets no revenue, transaction-count, or market-share threshold
What You Should Do Now
- 1Read the bill text yourself at GovInfo (BILLS-119hr9799ih) rather than relying on summaries — the operative caps are all in Section 3
- 2Do not change how you operate today: current Amazon policies on inventory holds, disbursement holds, and account deactivation are unaffected while the bill is in committee
- 3Track the bill's status on the House Judiciary Committee docket; a markup or hearing is the first signal it is moving
- 4Keep your own documentation habits intact — dated screenshots of hold notices, case IDs, and appeal correspondence are what any future notice-and-appeal regime would be built around, and they are what works with Amazon's existing appeal process now