Brand Owners: Congress Moves to Open U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Counterfeit Shipment Data

Both chambers of Congress have now passed bills allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to share packing, shipping, and marketplace data with brand owners. On August 7, 2026, the Senate unanimously passed S. 2677, the Grassley-Hassan bill, expanding what information CBP may share with rights holders about suspected counterfeit imports. The House of Representatives passed its companion legislation, H.R. 4930, on April 27, 2026. To become law, both chambers must pass identical text. If that happens, the legislation then will go to the President for his signature. 

The brands that will benefit are the ones with marks already recorded with CBP, active docket management systems, and an intake process built to aggregate and escalate border data into effective enforcement action.

What the Bill Changes

Both bills amend Section 628A of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1628a), the provision that lets CBP disclose to a rights holder the shipment information and unredacted images so the rights holder can examine and test suspect goods. There are four key changes that brand owners should know:

• Broader evidence: Shareable information and images extend beyond the merchandise, its packaging, and labels to reach packing materials and containers, putting consolidator, route, and repeat-shipper signals in play.
• Third-party data: CBP may share nonpublic information generated by online marketplaces, express consignment operators, freight forwarders, and other participants in the sale or importation chain that CBP already holds.
• A wider recipient list: Beyond trademark and copyright owners, CBP may engage any other party with an interest in the merchandise as the Commissioner deems appropriate, implicating both platforms and carriers.
• A notice obligation and a new trigger: When CBP shares nonpublic third-party data, it must notify the recipient of what was transmitted, under regulations to be prescribed. The threshold shifts from CBP "suspects" to "has a reasonable suspicion."

What Stays the Same

• Recordation is still the entry mechanism: Section 628A applies only to merchandise suspected of infringing a trademark or copyright recorded with CBP. 

• CBP retains discretion: The new sharing authority is permissive, and CBP still may not share where doing so would compromise an ongoing law enforcement investigation or national security.

• Nothing is self-executing: The notice mechanism runs through regulations that do not yet exist, so there should be a realistic expectation for a lag between legislation enactment and actual usable data flow.

Why It Matters for Brand Owners

Today, a border detention gives a brand owner a photograph and a decision to make. Under these new bills, it will soon start to create an actual intelligence file. Packing materials, container data, and forwarder and marketplace records are the connective tissue that ties an anonymous storefront to a physical shipment, a shipment to a consolidator, and a consolidator to a network.

That is particularly useful downstream, where the additional information can help by linking aliases and clusters for joinder in Schedule A cases, supporting asset restraint and expedited discovery requests, building recidivist dossiers that justify escalation, grounding the patterns of infringement in evidence that makes a demand letter effective, and enabling additional legal escalation when needed.

Of course, with any new improvement, the benefits run both ways. The same new disclosure authority will also route detention data to platforms and carriers, which carries the possibility to push more disruption upstream to platform-level action and away from the individual seizure.

What We Recommend Doing Now

• Audit and complete CBP recordation. Record every core mark, every key copyright, every relevant subsidiary and licensee. Confirm expiration dates. This is the cheapest work with the highest leverage under the new regime.
• Refresh or update product identification guides and CBP training. Shared data only comes from a properly flagged shipment. If officers cannot identify the brand owner’s goods, the pipeline never starts.
• Build a system to track and aggregate the new detention data before it starts arriving. Designate a process owner, establish a set a chain-of-custody protocols, and store CBP-provided material so it survives to any enforcement filing.
• Integrate CBP border data into the overall enforcement docket. Repeat-offender clustering, defendant grouping, asset-freeze targeting, and settlement leverage all improve when border intelligence sits alongside marketplace monitoring.
• Watch the confidentiality perimeter. Your shipment-adjacent data may reach platforms and carriers who are also commercial counterparties. Review supply chain and distribution terms accordingly.
• Engage with CBP on the rulemaking. The notification regulations will set the scope, format, and timing of what you actually receive.

Our Enforcement Lens

In our view, the best and most robust enforcement programs are run as an actionable intelligence exercise: the border is a key intelligence pipeline, not a series of one-off seizures. Combining a complete recordation architecture, an intake process that converts CBP disclosures into admissible evidence, and an escalation ladder that runs from notice through litigation and recovery is the strategic playbook. The objective is an IP enforcement system in which each detention makes the next enforcement action cheaper and stronger.

Status and Sources

S. 2677, 119th Cong. (passed Senate Aug. 7, 2026)

H.R. 4930, 119th Cong. (passed House Apr. 27, 2026), referred to the Senate Apr. 28, 2026, and called the Counterfeit Notification Act by its House sponsors, though neither bill carries a statutory short title. Both amend 19 U.S.C. 1628a. Enactment requires passage of identical text by both chambers and presentment to the President. Descriptions above reflect the engrossed Senate text.