By Wilson                                              H.B. No. 231

      75R1937 JSA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the resale of used textbooks; providing a penalty.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 51, Education Code, is

 1-5     amended by adding Section 51.9295 to read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 51.9295.  RESALE OF USED TEXTBOOK.  (a)  A person who

 1-7     advertises or holds himself or herself out as being in the business

 1-8     of selling textbooks or who sells or displays books for sale in a

 1-9     manner that indicates the books are textbooks commits an offense if

1-10     the person sells a used textbook at a price that is more than 20

1-11     percent higher than the price for which the person purchased the

1-12     used textbook.

1-13           (b)  An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.

1-14           (c)  In this section:

1-15                 (1)  "Used textbook" means a textbook that:

1-16                       (A)  is advertised or represented for sale as

1-17     used;

1-18                       (B)  is marked, damaged, or otherwise appears to

1-19     be in a used condition; or

1-20                       (C)  was purchased for resale:

1-21                             (i)  from a person not in the business of

1-22     selling books; or

1-23                             (ii)  from a person who represented the

1-24     books as used or secondhand.

 2-1                 (2)  "Textbook" means a book that is required for a

 2-2     current course of study or a course of study that is scheduled to

 2-3     be offered in the future at a postsecondary educational

 2-4     institution.

 2-5           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-6           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-7     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-8     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-9     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-10     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.