H.B. No. 5232
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.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 5232 was passed by the House on May 3,
2023, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 2, 1 present, not
voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 5232 was passed by the Senate on May
17, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 29, Nays 2.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor