By:  Combs                                            H.B. No. 2032
       73R6737 T
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to increased civil penalties for deceptive and fraudulent
    1-3  practices against elderly consumers.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 17.47, Business and Commerce Code,
    1-6  subsection (c) is amended to read as follows:
    1-7        (c)  In addition to the request for a temporary restraining
    1-8  order, or permanent injunction in a proceeding brought under
    1-9  Subsection (a) of this section, the consumer protection division
   1-10  may request a civil penalty of not more than $2,000 per violation,
   1-11  not to exceed a total of $10,000, to be paid to the state;
   1-12  provided, however, that if the proceeding brought under Subsection
   1-13  (a) of this section pertains to an action brought by a person who
   1-14  is 60 years or older, the civil penalties authorized under this
   1-15  subsection may not be more than $10,000 per violation, not to
   1-16  exceed a total of $100,000, to be paid to the state.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-18  crowded conditions of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-23  passage, and it is so enacted.