1-1 By: Ellis S.B. No. 1007
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 6, 1997; March 11, 1997, read
1-3 first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;
1-4 April 9, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7,
1-5 Nays 0; April 9, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to increased civil penalties for deceptive trade practices
1-9 against elderly consumers.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Subsection (c), Section 17.47, Business &
1-12 Commerce Code, is amended to read as follows:
1-13 (c) In addition to the request for a temporary restraining
1-14 order, or permanent injunction in a proceeding brought under
1-15 Subsection (a) of this section, the consumer protection division
1-16 may request a civil penalty to be paid to the state in an amount
1-17 of:
1-18 (1) not more than $2,000 per violation, not to exceed
1-19 a total of $10,000; or
1-20 (2) not more than $10,000 per violation, not to exceed
1-21 a total of $100,000, if the consumer protection division determines
1-22 that the act or practice that is the subject of the proceeding was
1-23 calculated to acquire or deprive money or other property from a
1-24 consumer who was 60 years of age or older when the act or practice
1-25 occurred[, to be paid to the state].
1-26 SECTION 2. This Act applies only to a proceeding brought
1-27 under Section 17.47, Business & Commerce Code, on or after the
1-28 effective date of this Act.
1-29 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-30 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-31 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-32 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-33 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-34 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-35 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-36 * * * * *