Texas HB 631 would make it a felony to operate a web page that is represented as an official page of a state agency, or as associated with a state agency, without the consent of that agency.

Although the bill may be aimed at a variety of fields, of note to our readers would be potential imitations of the Public Utility Commission's Power to Choose site.

The bill specifically provides, "A person commits an offense if the person, without obtaining the state agency's consent and with the intent to obtain a benefit or harm or defraud another, creates or maintains on an Internet site a web page that is represented as an official web page of or a web page associated with a state agency."

Although we are not aware of any Power to Choose clone sites which mimic the design of the official PUCT site, there are several sites which use as a redirect page (for SEO purposes presumably) addresses such as "powertochoose.[sitename].com". By noting this practice, RetailEnergyX itself in no way avers or implies that such behavior constitutes representation of a state agency website, but the matter is open to interpretation.

An offense under the bill is a felony of the third degree.

HB 631 would provide that the following is an affirmative defense to prosecution under the law:

(1) The site discloses in unambiguous language to each visitor to the web page that the web page is not associated with the state or an agency, department, or institution of the state; and

(2) The site requires each visitor to the web page to affirmatively acknowledge that the web page is not associated with the state or an agency, department, or institution of the state.