Massachusetts § 1C - Marketing companies

§ 1C. Marketing companies

Section 1C. Any marketing company formed by an electric company shall be in the form of an affiliate of the electric company and shall be separate from any generation, transmission, or distribution company affiliate of the electric company. The department shall promulgate standards of conduct which shall ensure the separation of such affiliates and which shall be consistent with the following provisions: (i) a distribution company shall not give any affiliates any preference over non-affiliated suppliers or customers thereof in matters relating to any product or service; (ii) all products, services, discounts, rebates, and fee waivers offered by a distribution company shall be available to all customers and suppliers simultaneously, to the extent technically possible, on a comparable basis; (iii) a distribution company shall process all same or similar requests for any product, service, or information in the same manner and within the same period of time; (iv) a distribution company shall not condition or tie the provision of any product, service, or rate agreement by the distribution company to the provision of any product or service to which an affiliate is involved; (v) a distribution company shall not share with any affiliate any market information acquired or developed by the distribution company in the course of responding to requests for distribution service or any proprietary customer information without the prior written authorization by the customer; (vi) a distribution company shall refrain from presenting that any advantage accrues to customers or others in the use of its services as a result of that customer or others dealing with any such affiliate; (vii) a distribution company shall not engage in joint advertising or marketing programs with any affiliate; and (viii) employees of a distribution company shall not be shared with, and shall be physically separated from those of, any generating or marketing affiliate.