| |
|
| |
|
|
By: Spiller (Senate Sponsor - Hughes) |
H.B. No. 5232 |
|
|
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 4, 2023; |
|
|
May 5, 2023, read first time and referred to Committee on State |
|
|
Affairs; May 10, 2023, reported favorably by the following vote: |
|
|
Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 10, 2023, sent to printer.) |
| Click here to see the committee vote |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
COMMITTEE VOTE |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
YeaNayAbsentPNV |
|
|
HughesX |
|
|
PaxtonX |
|
|
BettencourtX |
|
|
BirdwellX |
|
|
LaMantiaX |
|
|
MenéndezX |
|
|
MiddletonX |
|
|
ParkerX |
|
|
PerryX |
|
|
SchwertnerX |
|
|
ZaffiriniX |
|
|
|
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
| |
|
|
relating to civil penalties imposed for violations of the Texas |
|
|
Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act of 1983. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. Section 15.20(a), Business & Commerce Code, is |
|
|
amended to read as follows: |
|
|
(a) Suit to Collect Civil Fine. The attorney general may |
|
|
file suit in district court in Travis County or in any county in the |
|
|
State of Texas in which any of the named defendants resides, does |
|
|
business, or maintains its principal office on behalf of the State |
|
|
of Texas to collect a civil fine from any person, other than a |
|
|
municipal corporation, whom the attorney general believes has |
|
|
violated any of the prohibitions in Subsection (a), (b), or (c) of |
|
|
Section 15.05 of this Act. An individual or other [Every] person |
|
|
adjudged to have violated any of these prohibitions shall pay a fine |
|
|
to the state in an amount not to exceed: |
|
|
(1) if an individual, $300,000; or |
|
|
(2) if any other person: |
|
|
(A) $3 million, if the lesser of the person's |
|
|
assets or market capitalization is less than $100 million; |
|
|
(B) $20 million, if the lesser of the person's |
|
|
assets or market capitalization is at least $100 million but less |
|
|
than $500 million; or |
|
|
(C) $30 million, if the lesser of the person's |
|
|
assets or market capitalization is $500 million or more [$1 million |
|
|
if a corporation, or, if any other person, $100,000]. |
|
|
SECTION 2. Section 15.20(a), Business & Commerce Code, as |
|
|
amended by this Act, applies only to a suit filed on or after the |
|
|
effective date of this Act. A suit filed before the effective date |
|
|
of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the suit was |
|
|
filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. |
|
|
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023. |
|
|
|
|
|
* * * * * |