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N.Y. PBS Law § 53-A

This is the official text of N.Y. PBS Law § 53-A, part of New York’s PBS Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "PBS Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Prohibition of utilities engaging in detrimental conduct towards a residential customer

Official statutory text

§ 53-a. Prohibition of utilities engaging in detrimental conduct\ntowards a residential customer. 1. A utility corporation or\nmunicipality, or energy services companies subject to the department's\nuniform business practices and section three hundred forty-nine and\nthree hundred forty-nine-d of the general business law, also known as\nESCOs, shall not engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which\nis to harass, oppress, or abuse any residential customer in connection\nwith the handling of a residential customer complaint, the offering\nand/or negotiating of a deferred payment agreement, or the collection of\nan unpaid balance or any other obligation owed by such customer.\n 2. All utilities or municipal utilities or ESCOs in violation of this\nsection shall be subject to fines, penalties and enforcement by the\ndepartment pursuant to sections twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-five-a,\nand twenty-six of this chapter, and all such other legal or equitable\nremedies as may be necessary or convenient for protection of consumers\nagainst the prohibited behaviors described in subdivision one of this\nsection.\n 3. The commission shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to\nimplement and enforce the provisions of this section.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.