By: Toth H.B. No. 4620
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to civil penalties the attorney general may seek to
  recover under the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection
  Act.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 17.47(c), Business & Commerce Code, is
  amended to read as follows:
         (c)  In addition to the request for a temporary restraining
  order, or permanent injunction in a proceeding brought under
  Subsection (a) of this section, the consumer protection division
  may request, and the trier of fact may award, a civil penalty to be
  paid to the state in an amount of:
               (1)  not more than $10,000 [$20,000] per violation; and
               (2)  if the act or practice that is the subject of the
  proceeding was calculated to acquire or deprive money or other
  property from a consumer who was 65 years of age or older when the
  act or practice occurred, an additional amount of not more than
  $250,000.
         SECTION 2.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
  an action filed by the consumer protection division under Section
  17.47, Business and Commerce Code, on or after the effective date of
  this Act.  An action filed by the consumer protection division under
  Section 17.47, Business and Commerce Code, before the effective
  date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the
  action is filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that
  purpose.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.