By McCall                                               H.B. No. 54
       74R58(1) DWS
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to sale by a merchant of information about a customer.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 35, Business & Commerce
    1-5  Code, is amended by adding Section 35.43 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 35.43.  MERCHANT SALE OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION.  (a)  In
    1-7  this section:
    1-8              (1)  "Customer information" means information about a
    1-9  customer that a merchant obtains in connection with a sale or lease
   1-10  of goods or services at the merchant's location.
   1-11              (2)  "Merchant" means a person in the business of
   1-12  selling or leasing goods or services from a fixed location.
   1-13        (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), a merchant may not
   1-14  sell:
   1-15              (1)  a customer's driver's license number;
   1-16              (2)  customer information obtained solely from the
   1-17  customer's payment by personal check or credit card;
   1-18              (3)  customer information that the customer requests
   1-19  that the merchant not sell; or
   1-20              (4)  any other customer information, unless notice is
   1-21  given as provided by Subsection (c).
   1-22        (c)  A merchant may sell customer information, except
   1-23  customer information described by Subsections (b)(1)-(3), if the
   1-24  customer that the information concerns has been given prior notice
    2-1  of the sale.  A merchant may give notice by any reasonable method,
    2-2  including conspicuous posting at the merchant's location of a sign
    2-3  containing the notice.
    2-4        (d)  This section does not apply to:
    2-5              (1)  customer information obtained for the purpose of
    2-6  extending credit;
    2-7              (2)  customer information obtained from a governmental
    2-8  body, as defined by Section 552.003, Government Code;
    2-9              (3)  a sale of information concerning a check or credit
   2-10  card transaction if the sale of the information is incidental to
   2-11  the sale or other disposition of accounts receivable; or
   2-12              (4)  a sale of customer information to the purchaser of
   2-13  the merchant's business or a retail outlet of the merchant's
   2-14  business.
   2-15        (e)  A merchant who violates this section is liable to the
   2-16  customer that the information concerns for damages of $100, court
   2-17  costs, and reasonable attorney's fees.  An action under this
   2-18  section may be brought only in a county in which the merchant's
   2-19  location from which the customer information was obtained is
   2-20  located.
   2-21        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-26  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.