Matzie: House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee approves new bills to ban predatory sales practices, protect ratepayers

Rep. Robert Matzie    October 3, 2023 | 1:52 PM

HARRISBURG, Oct. 3 – The House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee voted today to send new consumer protection bills to the full House for consideration, including bills that would ban predatory sales practices and protect utility customers, Majority Chairman Rep. Rob Matzie announced.

“These consumer and ratepayer protections are the result of months of hard, bipartisan work over the summer,” Matzie said. “Our goal was to get these measures up for House consideration as soon as possible, and I was proud that we came together to do that for the good of the state’s consumers.”

The bills approved by the committee today include:

  • H.B. 109, which would prohibit telecommunications and utility companies from charging early termination fees when a customer dies before completion of a contract.
  • H.B. 636, which would require sellers to disclose “junk fees” – unexpected, mandatory fees added to the price of goods or services.
  • H.B. 1378, which would ban “grinch bots” used by scalpers to buy up mass quantities of items for resale at inflated prices.
  • H.B. 1619, which would address unsafe and unsightly duplicative utility poles.
  • H.B. 1658, which would ban speculative ticketing – a practice that allows ticket resellers to list tickets for sale even though they do not have – and may never have – those tickets.

 

More about the committee and its work is available here: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/index.cfm?Code=63&CteeBody=H.