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Texas Business Law
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Securities fraud can be committed when 1) a corporate officer or director makes a material misrepresentation, withholding, or distortion related to stock information (usually pertaining to value), 2) an officer or director unlawfully discloses confidential information related to a stock, and 3) an individual or entity acts upon the unlawful disclosure of certain confidential stock information. Securities fraud is usually governed by both federal and state law, and legal action can be initiated by private investors, or by a government agency such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. |
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General Business and Commercial Laws |
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Deceptive Trade Practices |
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| Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act Adopted | No (Bus. & Com. §§17.41 to 505) Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act | | False Advertising Forbidden | Yes (Bus. & Com. §17.46) | | Who May Bring Suit | Attorney general; consumers; consumer protection division, district attorney (Bus. & Com. §§17.47, 17.48) | | Remedies Available | Actual and treble damages (Bus. & Com. §17.50); injunctive relief, restitution, attorney's fees and costs, plus remedies available in other laws (Bus. & Com. §17.43, §17.50); restraining order, civil penalty not more than $2,000 per violation, not to exceed $10,000; if against consumer 65 or older, not more than $10,000 per violation, to to exceed $100,000 (Bus. & Com. §17.47) | | Auto Odometer Tampering Forbidden | Yes (Bus. & Com. §17.46(16)) |
A deceptive trade practice is an activity in which an individual or business engages that is calculated to mislead or lure the public into purchasing a product or service. False advertising and odometer tampering are two of the most blatant examples of this commercial lying. Such activities are given special status as offenses against the citizenry in general and are therefore accorded by law special enforcement status. Deceptive trade practices result in criminal prosecution in some states; in others, statutes provide for private enforcement, whereby a citizen is entitled to sue a business for violating deceptive trade practice laws and may be able to recover punitive damages and/or statutory fines. The attorney general of the state may also bring a lawsuit against an offending business enterprise. Because a deceptive trade practice may affect individuals or businesses from more than one state, a number of states have adopted the standardized Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UDTPA). The Uniform Act does not add or detract from the law of any one state; rather, it is inclusive and tends to cover, in general terms, all the prohibitions and issues addressed in state law in this area. For example, the Uniform Act prohibits making deceptive representations in connection with commercial goods. This obviously covers odometer tampering, but it also addresses all forms of deception in the marketing or advertising of goods and services. Those states that have not adopted the UDTPA have laws similar to it. There is little controversy among the states over what activity amounts to a deceptive trade practice. However, there is a great deal of variety concerning the remedies available for the violations and who may sue for those violations. There are two main purposes of the statutes providing for remedies for businesses engaging in unlawful activity: (1) injunctions or restraining orders forbidding the continued deceptive trade practice and (2) punishment via fines, damages, and imprisonment. But because businesses are generally in violation of deceptive trade practice laws, and because it is difficult to determine whom to punish in the violating business, fines are generally the most effective method of extracting restitution. findlaw.com |
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| Antitrust Code Section | Texas Fair Enterprise & Antitrust Act of 1983: Bus. & Com. §§15.01, et seq. | | Is a Private Lawsuit Possible? | Yes; attorney general power to enforce | | Time Limit to Bring Claim | 4 yrs. or 1 yr. after conclusion of action based on the same act | | Can a Successful Plaintiff Recover Attorneys' Fees? | Yes |
Antitrust violations are "crimes" committed by business entities that injure both competing businesses and the consumer by artificially inflating or fixing prices. Antitrust laws came into national prominence in the late nineteenth century with the rise of the giant industrial monopolies. Two types of monopolies, horizontal and vertical, were felt to be particularly harmful to competition. In a horizontal monopoly, a single entity owns all or an unreasonable percentage of the firms competing in the same business, such as all the telephone or oil companies. In a vertical monopoly, a single entity owns all or an unreasonable percentage of all levels of business within a single industry, for example, all the forests, logging firms, mills, printing plants, and newspapers. Through the exercise of its power to regulate interstate commerce, Congress has enacted the most sweeping of antitrust regulations in the Sherman Antitrust Act. Because of the great size of the businesses engaged in antitrust or anti-competitive practices as well, the federal government has taken the lead in enforcing against these types of unfair business practices. Most antitrust statutes are enforced in two ways: the state attorney general can sue on behalf of the state in order to correct the unfair practice, either by obtaining an injunction prohibiting the offensive practice or by ordering fines or other redress to be paid or otherwise addressed to the consumers; the other way is by a private right of action, whereby consumers themselves or competing businesses sue to recover for damages or injuries suffered as a result of the offending behavior. Some states permit civil charge only; some permit civil and criminal charges. Findlaw.com |
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