§ 17.001. CUSTOMER PROTECTION POLICY.

(a) The legislature finds that new developments in telecommunications services and the production and delivery of electricity, as well as changes in market structure, marketing techniques, and technology, make it essential that customers have safeguards against fraudulent, unfair, misleading, deceptive, or anticompetitive business practices and against businesses that do not have the technical and financial resources to provide adequate service.

(b) The purpose of this chapter is to establish retail customer protection standards and confer on the commission authority to adopt and enforce rules to protect retail customers from fraudulent, unfair, misleading, deceptive, or anticompetitive practices.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to abridge customer rights set forth in commission rules in effect at the time of the enactment of this chapter.

(d) This chapter does not limit the constitutional, statutory, and common law authority of the office of the attorney general.

(e) Nothing in this chapter authorizes a customer to receive retail electric service from a person other than a certificated retail electric utility.