By Wilson                                             H.B. No. 1438
         76R6279 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, 1999.
 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.