Current through Reg. 50, No. 13; March 28, 2025
(a) Purpose. The
purpose of this section is to establish a code of conduct in order to implement
Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) §51.001 and §64.001 relating to
fair business practices and safeguards against fraudulent, unfair, misleading,
deceptive, or anticompetitive practices in order to ensure quality service and
a competitive market.
(b)
Application. This section applies to all certificated telecommunications
utilities (CTUs), as defined in §
26.5 of this title (relating to
Definitions), and CTU employees. This section also applies to all authorized
agents of the CTU. This section does not apply to a deregulated company holding
a certificate of operating authority or to an exempt carrier under Public
Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) §52.154.
(c) Communications.
(1) A CTU employee or authorized agent shall
conduct communications with competitors and competitors' end-user customers
with the same degree of professionalism, courtesy, and efficiency as that
performed on behalf of their employer and end-user customers.
(2) A CTU employee or authorized agent, while
engaged in the installation of equipment or the rendering of services
(including the processing of an order for the installation, repair or
restoration of service, or engaged in the actual repair or restoration of
service) on behalf of a competitor shall not make statements regarding the
service of any competitor and shall not promote any of the CTU's services to
the competitor's end-user customers.
(d) Corporate advertising and marketing.
(1) A CTU, CTU employee or authorized agent
shall not engage in false, misleading or deceptive practices, advertising or
marketing with respect to the offering of any telecommunications
service.
(2) A CTU, CTU employee or
authorized agent shall not falsely state or falsely imply that the services
provided by the CTU on behalf of a competitor are superior when purchased
directly from the CTU.
(3) A CTU,
CTU employee or authorized agent shall not falsely state or falsely imply that
the services offered by a competitor cannot be reliably rendered, or that the
quality of service provided by a competitor is of a substandard
nature.
(4) A CTU, CTU employee or
authorized agent shall not falsely state nor falsely imply to any end-user
customer that the continuation of any telecommunications service provided by
the CTU is contingent upon ordering any other telecommunications service
offered by the CTU. This section is not intended to prohibit a CTU from
offering, or enforcing the terms of, any bundled or packaged service or any
other form of pricing flexibility permitted by PURA and commission
rules.
(e) Information
sharing and disclosure.
(1) Pursuant to the
federal Telecommunications Act §222(a), each CTU has a duty to protect the
confidentiality of proprietary information of, and relating to, other
CTUs.
(2) Pursuant to the federal
Telecommunications Act §222(b), each CTU that receives or obtains
proprietary information from another CTU for purposes of providing any
telecommunications service shall use such information only for such purpose,
and shall not use such information for its own marketing efforts or any other
unauthorized purpose.
(f) References to other Chapter 26
substantive rules. The following commission rules also affect the conduct of
CTU employees and authorized agents. All CTU employees and agents must be
trained to comply with the specific substance of these rules which affect their
employment responsibilities. Copies of specific commission rules shall be made
available by the CTU to any employee or agent upon their request. The
applicability of each of the following sections is unaffected by the reference
in this section and does not relieve any CTU of its responsibility to abide by
other applicable commission rules.
(1)
Section 26.21 of this title (relating to
General Provisions of Customer Service and Protection Rules);
(2) Section
26.31 of this title (relating to
Disclosures to Applicants and Customers);
(3) Section
26.32 of this title (relating to
Protection Against Unauthorized Billing Charges ("Cramming"));
(4) Section
26.37 of this title (relating to
Texas No-Call List); and
(5)
Section 26.130 of this title (relating to
Selection of Telecommunications Utilities).
(g) Adoption and dissemination.
(1) Every CTU or authorized agent shall
formally adopt and implement all applicable provisions of this section as
company policy, or modify existing company policy as needed to incorporate all
applicable provisions, within 90 days of the effective date of this section. A
CTU shall provide a copy of its internal code of conduct required by this
section to the commission upon request.
(2) Every CTU or authorized agent shall
disseminate the applicable provisions of this section to all existing and new
employees and agents, and take appropriate actions to both train employees and
enforce compliance with this section on an ongoing basis. Every CTU shall
document every employee's and agent's receipt and acknowledgement of its
internal policies required by this section, and every CTU shall make such
documentation available to the commission upon request.
(h) Investigation and enforcement.
(1) Administrative penalties. If the
commission finds that a CTU has violated any provision of this section, the
commission shall order the utility to take corrective action, as necessary, and
the utility may be subject to administrative penalties and other enforcement
actions pursuant to PURA, Chapter 15.
(2) Certificate revocation. If the commission
finds that a CTU is repeatedly in violation of this section, and if consistent
with the public interest, the commission may suspend, restrict, or revoke the
registration or certificate of the CTU.
(3) Coordination with the Office of the
Attorney General. The commission shall coordinate its enforcement efforts
regarding the prosecution of fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, and
anticompetitive business practices with the Office of the Attorney General in
order to ensure consistent treatment of specific alleged violations.
