Bill Text: NY A04830 | 2011-2012 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Directs the department of state and the public service commission to study and report upon the prevalence of the disclosure by public utilities, cable television companies and cellular telephone service providers to credit reporting agencies of late payments and defaults in payment of fees and charges by consumers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-06-14 - ordered to third reading rules cal.176 [A04830 Detail]

Download: New_York-2011-A04830-Introduced.html

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                           S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
       ________________________________________________________________________
                                         4830
                              2011-2012 Regular Sessions
                                 I N  A S S E M B L Y
                                   February 8, 2011
                                      ___________
       Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  P. RIVERA  --  read once and referred to the
         Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection
       AN ACT to prohibit public utility companies, cable television  companies
         and  cellular  telephone  service  suppliers  from  providing,  to any
         consumer credit reporting agency, information on late payments  of  or
         default  on  any fees or charges incurred by a consumer; and providing
         for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof
         THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
       BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
    1    Section  1.  Notwithstanding any provision  of law to the contrary, no
    2  public utility company as defined in subdivision 23 of section 2 of  the
    3  public  service law, municipality engaged in providing any public utili-
    4  ty, cable television company as defined in subdivision 1 of section  212
    5  of the public service law or wireless communications service supplier as
    6  defined in subdivision 12 of section 301 of the county law, nor the Long
    7  Island  power  authority or the power authority of the state of New York
    8  shall report, disclose or otherwise make available to any consumer cred-
    9  it reporting agency as defined in subdivision (k) of  section  380-a  of
   10  the  general  business law, any information relating to the late payment
   11  of or default on the payment of any charge or fee by a consumer for  the
   12  provision of any public utility or other service or goods.
   13    S  2.  Any  consumer  who has been injured by reason of a violation of
   14  section one of this act may bring an action in his or her  own  name  to
   15  enjoin such violation; an action to recover his or her actual damages or
   16  five  hundred  dollars,  whichever is greater; or both such actions. The
   17  court may, in its discretion, increase the award of damages to an amount
   18  not to exceed three times the actual damages, if  the  court  finds  the
   19  defendant  willfully and knowingly violated section one of this act. The
   20  court may award reasonable attorney's fees to a prevailing plaintiff.
   21    S 3. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day  after  it  shall
   22  have become a law, and shall expire and be deemed repealed 2 years after
   23  such effective date.
        EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                             [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                  LBD00406-01-1