Affordable Shipping for All

Summary#

This bill, the Affordable Shipping for All Act, would stop shipping services from charging higher shipping fees for the same product sent to noncontiguous areas than they charge for the same product sent to locations in the contiguous United States. It would also stop shipping services from excluding noncontiguous areas from their shipping policies or from shipping to those locations. Items valued over $10,000 are exempt from the bill. The bill defines key terms: consumer products (finished goods for end users); contiguous United States (the 48 states and the District of Columbia); noncontiguous areas (places not physically connected to the contiguous United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands); producer goods (raw materials); and shipping services (private companies that transport products for retailers, and the United States Postal Service).

What it means for you#

  • If you live in Alaska, Hawaii, or a U.S. territory named in the bill, carriers and sellers could not charge more for shipping the same item than they charge to the contiguous United States.
  • Shipping services could not refuse to include these noncontiguous areas in their shipping options.
  • The rule does not apply to items worth more than $10,000.
  • No publicly available information about enforcement, penalties, or how disputes would be resolved is included in the bill text.

Expenses#

No publicly available information about costs, budget changes, or fiscal impact is included in the bill text or metadata provided.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.