--- title: "Enforcement + litigation matters — list, filter and search" method: GET path: "/enforcement/matters" --- # Enforcement + litigation matters — list, filter and search `GET /enforcement/matters` ## Request - Base URL: `https://ai-law-tracker.com/api/v1` - URL: `https://ai-law-tracker.com/api/v1/enforcement/matters` - Auth: one of: - API key in header `X-API-Key` - HTTP bearer Regulatory enforcement actions and private litigation involving AI, at MATTER level: forum, agency, parties, status, relief and the statutes invoked. One row per dispute, not per press release — an agency action with a complaint, a settlement and a final order is three rows on /v1/enforcement and ONE matter here. OPEN AT EVERY TIER since 2026-08-22. It used to answer a hard 403 below Enterprise, which made the dataset invisible and therefore unsellable. What is metered instead is DEPTH: the assembled chain on /enforcement/matters/{matter_uid} — parties, relief amounts, the event timeline and the cited statutes — is sampled below the paid step. A record budget would have been theatre on a 91-row registry. A SECOND GATE THAT IS NOT ABOUT MONEY: 30 of 91 matters are duplicates of another row or still carry an untranslated CAPTION, and are withheld from every caller not licensed for the raw registry — `meta.registry.withheld_not_publish_ready` reports how many THIS query hid. A further 6 ARE published with one descriptive field nulled and named in `unavailable_fields`; withholding a $1.4bn settlement because its forum_name has an untranslated clause would have been a worse answer. See /enforcement/coverage for the full breakdown. READ `verification` BEFORE QUOTING ANYTHING. Every matter currently held is `single_source`. An empty data[] means no matter matched — never that an agency has taken no action. /enforcement/sources says which of the 254 monitored sources are actually answering. ## Query parameters - `jurisdiction` string - `jurisdiction_level` string - `forum_type` string - `matter_type` string - `matter_status` string - `agency` string - `ai_role` string - `domain` string - `verification` string - `date_from` string, date - `date_to` string, date - `q` string - `tier` string - `sort` 'filed_date' | 'decided_date' | 'first_seen_at' | 'last_verified_at' | 'closed_date' - `order` 'asc' | 'desc' - `limit` integer - `offset` integer ## Response `200` Matching matters, plus what the tier and the readiness gate withheld. - object - `api_version` string - `data` EnforcementMatter[] - `matter_uid` string: Stable key for fetching this matter again. AN OPAQUE KEY, NOT A DESCRIPTION — do not render it as a name. It is generated from whatever the ingest could parse and is demonstrably unreliable (one uid names RealPage for what is in fact the DOJ/LivCor consent decree). Read `caption`. - `caption` string: The matter as a human should read it. This is its name. - `jurisdiction_level` string - `jurisdiction_slug` string - `jurisdiction_name` string, nullable - `forum_type` string: See /enforcement/categories. - `forum_name` string, nullable - `matter_type` string: enforcement_action | civil_litigation | guidance_document | investigation | inquiry_6b. See /enforcement/categories. - `matter_status` string - `docket_number` string, nullable - `agency_code` string, nullable: FTC, DOJ, SEC, CFPB, EEOC, a state AG… Free text, not a closed vocabulary. - `ai_roles` string[]: How AI figures in the matter. See the ai_role vocabulary. - `filed_date` string, date, nullable: The date the SOURCE states the action was filed or opened, verbatim. NEVER our scrape date — that is `first_seen_at`, and confusing the two is the defect this field was rebuilt to remove. Null means the source did not state one; it is never inferred, and `date_source` below names where a non-null value came from. - `decided_date` string, date, nullable: The date the SOURCE states the matter resolved — settlement announced, consent order entered, final order, judgment. Null when unresolved or unstated. - `date_source` string, nullable: Which source field `filed_date` was lifted from, e.g. `ftc_case_timeline_oldest_entry`, `cfpb_listing_date_filed`, `tx_ag_listing_meta`, `doj_release_published_meta`. Published so a date can be traced rather than trusted. Always present when filed_date is. - `closed_date` string, date, nullable - `summary` string, nullable: Null on 42 of 91 matters. - `source_authority` string - `source_url` string: Where the claim came from. Never withheld at any tier — it is how you check our work. - `verification` string: Corroboration level. MEASURED 2026-08-22: every matter currently held is `single_source`, i.e. recorded from ONE official source with no second confirmation. Never withheld at any tier; read it before relying on any claim here. - `first_seen_at` string, date-time - `last_verified_at` string, date-time, nullable - `primary_domain_id` string - `primary_domain_label` string - `primary_branch_id` string - `primary_branch_label` string - `domains` object[]: All assigned subject domains, primary and secondary. - `is_canonical` boolean: False when another matter_uid already publishes this same source document. - `duplicate_of` string, nullable: The matter_uid to read instead. Present only on a non-canonical row. - `publish_ready` boolean: Canonical AND its CAPTION is in English. Rows where this is false are served only to a caller licensed for the raw registry. - `unavailable_fields` string[]: Present only when a DESCRIPTIVE field (forum_name, agency_code or summary) was nulled because it still carries untranslated internal working language. The matter itself is published; only these fields are not. A null WITHOUT this list means the source simply did not state a value. - `unavailable_reason` string: Why the fields above are null. Present only alongside unavailable_fields. - `enforcement_tier` string, nullable: A = an enforcement DECISION (complaint filed, consent order, settlement, civil penalty, judgment, cease-and-desist). B = an enforcement-adjacent SIGNAL (opened investigation, sweep, CID, enforcement advisory, 6(b) study order). NULL means the tier was never assessed — true of every matter recorded before 2026-08-22 — and does NOT mean B. Filter `tier=A` when the question is how many real enforcement decisions exist. - `ai_basis` object: WHY this matter is in an AI dataset. `matches` lists each term that fired, the field it fired in, the ai_role it implies, and a VERBATIM excerpt of the source text around it; `method` says whether the agency's own classification was used (e.g. the FTC industry tag "Technology > Artificial Intelligence") or only keywords. Published deliberately: it is the citation for the inclusion decision, so the corpus can be audited without re-reading every source. - `source_absent_fields` string[]: Fields the ingest LOOKED FOR and the source did not state. NOT the same as `unavailable_fields`, which is what WE withheld. This one is the agency's gap; that one is ours. - `industry_labels` string[]: Sector labels the SOURCE applied, verbatim (FTC industry/topic tags, DOJ ATR "Industry Code(s)"). Never inferred from the respondent's name. - `violation_labels` string[]: Violation types the SOURCE stated, verbatim (FTC "Enforcement Type"/"Type of Action", DOJ ATR "Case Violation(s)"). Never inferred from the conduct described. - `ingest_lane` string, nullable: Which writer produced the row. Provenance, not classification. - `meta` object - `total` integer: EXACT, never an estimate — the registry is 91 rows. - `total_is_estimate` boolean: Always false here. Present so a consumer need not remember which endpoints can promise an exact count. - `count` integer - `limit` integer - `offset` integer - `tier` string - `gated` string[] - `registry` object - `raw_registry_access` boolean - `withheld_not_publish_ready` integer - `withheld_reason` string, nullable - `chains` 'sample' | 'full' - `chains_open_at` string, nullable - `disclaimer` string - `attribution` string ## Other responses - `400`: Invalid parameter. - `503`: Enforcement backend unavailable. --- [API](https://skmtc.dev/ai-law-tracker/apis/ai-law-tracker-public-laws-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/ai-law-tracker/apis/ai-law-tracker-public-laws-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/ai-law-tracker/apis/ai-law-tracker-public-laws-api/revisions/25403268a853?raw)