By: Johnson, Hernandez (Senate Sponsor - Lucio) H.B. No. 2573
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 6, 2015;
May 7, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on State
Affairs; May 20, 2015, reported adversely, with favorable
Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0;
May 20, 2015, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 2573 By: Estes
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a deceptive trade practice related to the use of certain
words to imply that a person who is not an attorney is authorized to
practice law and the prosecution of a cause of action arising from
that practice.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 17.46(b), Business & Commerce Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(b) Except as provided in Subsection (d) of this section,
the term "false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices"
includes, but is not limited to, the following acts:
(1) passing off goods or services as those of another;
(2) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to the
source, sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods or
services;
(3) causing confusion or misunderstanding as to
affiliation, connection, or association with, or certification by,
another;
(4) using deceptive representations or designations
of geographic origin in connection with goods or services;
(5) representing that goods or services have
sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses,
benefits, or quantities which they do not have or that a person has
a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection which
the person [he] does not;
(6) representing that goods are original or new if
they are deteriorated, reconditioned, reclaimed, used, or
secondhand;
(7) representing that goods or services are of a
particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a
particular style or model, if they are of another;
(8) disparaging the goods, services, or business of
another by false or misleading representation of facts;
(9) advertising goods or services with intent not to
sell them as advertised;
(10) advertising goods or services with intent not to
supply a reasonable expectable public demand, unless the
advertisements disclosed a limitation of quantity;
(11) making false or misleading statements of fact
concerning the reasons for, existence of, or amount of price
reductions;
(12) representing that an agreement confers or
involves rights, remedies, or obligations which it does not have or
involve, or which are prohibited by law;
(13) knowingly making false or misleading statements
of fact concerning the need for parts, replacement, or repair
service;
(14) misrepresenting the authority of a salesman,
representative or agent to negotiate the final terms of a consumer
transaction;
(15) basing a charge for the repair of any item in
whole or in part on a guaranty or warranty instead of on the value of
the actual repairs made or work to be performed on the item without
stating separately the charges for the work and the charge for the
warranty or guaranty, if any;
(16) disconnecting, turning back, or resetting the
odometer of any motor vehicle so as to reduce the number of miles
indicated on the odometer gauge;
(17) advertising of any sale by fraudulently
representing that a person is going out of business;
(18) advertising, selling, or distributing a card
which purports to be a prescription drug identification card issued
under Section 4151.152, Insurance Code, in accordance with rules
adopted by the commissioner of insurance, which offers a discount
on the purchase of health care goods or services from a third party
provider, and which is not evidence of insurance coverage, unless:
(A) the discount is authorized under an agreement
between the seller of the card and the provider of those goods and
services or the discount or card is offered to members of the
seller;
(B) the seller does not represent that the card
provides insurance coverage of any kind; and
(C) the discount is not false, misleading, or
deceptive;
(19) using or employing a chain referral sales plan in
connection with the sale or offer to sell of goods, merchandise, or
anything of value, which uses the sales technique, plan,
arrangement, or agreement in which the buyer or prospective buyer
is offered the opportunity to purchase merchandise or goods and in
connection with the purchase receives the seller's promise or
representation that the buyer shall have the right to receive
compensation or consideration in any form for furnishing to the
seller the names of other prospective buyers if receipt of the
compensation or consideration is contingent upon the occurrence of
an event subsequent to the time the buyer purchases the merchandise
or goods;
(20) representing that a guaranty [guarantee] or
warranty confers or involves rights or remedies which it does not
have or involve, provided, however, that nothing in this subchapter
shall be construed to expand the implied warranty of
merchantability as defined in Sections 2.314 through 2.318 and
Sections 2A.212 through 2A.216 to involve obligations in excess of
those which are appropriate to the goods;
(21) promoting a pyramid promotional scheme, as
defined by Section 17.461;
(22) representing that work or services have been
performed on, or parts replaced in, goods when the work or services
were not performed or the parts replaced;
(23) filing suit founded upon a written contractual
obligation of and signed by the defendant to pay money arising out
of or based on a consumer transaction for goods, services, loans, or
extensions of credit intended primarily for personal, family,
household, or agricultural use in any county other than in the
county in which the defendant resides at the time of the
commencement of the action or in the county in which the defendant
in fact signed the contract; provided, however, that a violation of
this subsection shall not occur where it is shown by the person
filing such suit that the person [he] neither knew or had reason to
know that the county in which such suit was filed was neither the
county in which the defendant resides at the commencement of the
suit nor the county in which the defendant in fact signed the
contract;
(24) failing to disclose information concerning goods
or services which was known at the time of the transaction if such
failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the
consumer into a transaction into which the consumer would not have
entered had the information been disclosed;
(25) using the term "corporation," "incorporated," or
an abbreviation of either of those terms in the name of a business
entity that is not incorporated under the laws of this state or
another jurisdiction;
(26) selling, offering to sell, or illegally promoting
an annuity contract under Chapter 22, Acts of the 57th Legislature,
3rd Called Session, 1962 (Article 6228a-5, Vernon's Texas Civil
Statutes), with the intent that the annuity contract will be the
subject of a salary reduction agreement, as defined by that Act, if
the annuity contract is not an eligible qualified investment under
that Act or is not registered with the Teacher Retirement System of
Texas as required by Section 8A of that Act; [or]
(27) taking advantage of a disaster declared by the
governor under Chapter 418, Government Code, by:
(A) selling or leasing fuel, food, medicine, or
another necessity at an exorbitant or excessive price; or
(B) demanding an exorbitant or excessive price in
connection with the sale or lease of fuel, food, medicine, or
another necessity; or
(28) using the translation into a foreign language of
a title or other word, including "attorney," "lawyer," "licensed,"
"notary," and "notary public," in any written or electronic
material, including an advertisement, a business card, a
letterhead, stationery, a website, or an online video, in reference
to a person who is not an attorney in order to imply that the person
is authorized to practice law in the United States.
SECTION 2. Section 17.48, Business & Commerce Code, is
amended by adding Subsections (c) and (d) to read as follows:
(c) In an action prosecuted by a district or county attorney
under this subchapter for a violation of Section 17.46(b)(28),
three-fourths of any civil penalty awarded by a court must be paid
to the county where the court is located.
(d) A district or county attorney is not required to obtain
the permission of the consumer protection division to prosecute an
action under this subchapter for a violation of Section
17.46(b)(28), if the district or county attorney provides prior
written notice to the division as required by Subsection (b).
SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of
this Act. A cause of action that accrued before the effective date
of this Act is governed by the law in effect immediately before the
effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for
that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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