Bill Text: NY S08899 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Prohibits telephone, cable and utility companies from charging a fee to customers who request copies of previous bill statements or statements verifying that they are a customer.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-08-11 - REFERRED TO RULES [S08899 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S08899-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8899

                    IN SENATE

                                     August 11, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules

        AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to prohibiting tele-
          phone, cable and utility companies from charging a  fee  to  customers
          who  request copies of previous billing statements or statements veri-
          fying that they are a customer

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. Section 224-b of the public service law, as added by chap-
     2  ter 359 of the laws of 2009, is amended to read as follows:
     3    § 224-b. Cable bills. 1. At the time service is initiated to  a  resi-
     4  dential  customer  and  at least once a year thereafter, every telephone
     5  corporation, as defined in subdivision seventeen of section two of  this
     6  chapter,  and  every cable television company, as defined in section two
     7  hundred twelve of this article that provides cable service to  customers
     8  in  New  York  shall  provide  its  customers with a notice that billing
     9  statements are available in a large print format.  Upon written  request
    10  by  a customer, every telephone corporation and cable television company
    11  shall provide the customer's billing statements in large print format no
    12  later than sixty days after the date upon which the request is  received
    13  by   the   telephone  corporation  and  cable  television  company.  The
    14  provisions of this section shall apply only to printed  statements.  For
    15  the purposes of this section, "large print" means a font size of sixteen
    16  or larger to illuminate billing information.
    17    2.  Upon customer request, every telephone corporation and cable tele-
    18  vision company shall  provide  copies  of  previous  billing  statements
    19  and/or  statements verifying that such person requesting the document is
    20  a customer of such telephone corporation or  television  company.  Tele-
    21  phone  corporations  and  television companies shall not impose any fee,
    22  charge or surcharge for such requests.
    23    § 2. Section 44 of the public service law is amended by adding  a  new
    24  subdivision 6 to read as follows:
    25    6.  Upon  customer request, every utility corporation, energy services
    26  company or municipality shall provide copies of previous billing  state-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14513-01-9
        S. 8899                             2

     1  ments  and/or statements verifying that such person requesting the docu-
     2  ment is a customer of such utility corporation, energy services  company
     3  or  municipality. Utility companies, energy services companies and muni-
     4  cipalities  shall  not  impose  any  fee,  charge  or surcharge for such
     5  requests.
     6    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.