For the purposes of this chapter, the term:

(1) “Affiliate” means a person who directly or indirectly, through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, or has directly or indirectly, any economic interest in another person.

(2) “Anticompetitive condition” means a condition that would allow a party to:

(A) Exercise vertical or horizontal market power;

(B) Use the ownership or control of a regulated facility to favor an unregulated affiliate or subsidiary, or to discriminate against a non-affiliated entity;

(C) Erect a barrier to entry; or

(D) Compete unfairly or deny effective competition to residential customers.

(3) “Anticompetitive conduct” means an activity that would:

(A) Violate any applicable antitrust law;

(B) Constitute favorable treatment of an affiliate;

(C) Discriminate against an unrelated entity;

(D) Constitute a barrier to entry; or

(E) Confer an unfair competitive advantage upon an entity.

(4) “Applicant” means a person who is applying for a license to sell or supply natural gas to retail customers in the District of Columbia.

(5) “Commission” means the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia.

(6) “Cramming” means the unauthorized addition of services or charges to a customer’s existing service options.

(7) “Customer” means a purchaser of natural gas in whose name a service account exists with the company.

(8) “Distribution service” means the delivery of natural gas to a customer at the customer’s facilities by or through the instrumentalities and facilities of the gas company.

(9) “Enrollment” means the process by which the gas company receives and processes the notification from the natural gas supplier that a customer has entered into a contract for the supply of natural gas with that natural gas supplier.

(10) “Enrollment agreement” means the written contract that contains the terms and conditions for the provision of retail natural gas sales that is entered into between a residential customer and a natural gas supplier.

(11) “Gas company” means a person regulated by the Commission that owns or controls the distribution facilities required for the transmission and delivery of natural gas to customers.

(12) “Natural gas supplier” means a person including an aggregator, broker, or marketer, who sells natural gas or purchases, brokers, arranges or, markets natural gas for sale to customers. The term shall not include a person that supplies natural gas exclusively for its own consumption or the consumption of one or more of its affiliates. The term shall not include the following:

(A) Building owners, lessees, or managers who manage the internal distribution system serving the building and who supply natural gas solely to occupants of the building for use by the occupants;

(B)(i) Any person who purchases natural gas for its own use or for the use of its subsidiaries or affiliates; or

(ii) Any apartment building or office building manager who aggregates retail natural gas sales requirements for his or her building, and who does not:

(I) Take title to natural gas;

(II) Market retail natural gas sales to the individually-metered tenants of his or her building; or

(III) Engage in the resale of natural gas to others;

(C) Property owners who supply small amounts of natural gas, at cost, as an accommodation to lessors or licensees of the property;

(D) A consolidator; or

(E) The gas company.

(13) “Natural gas supplier choice” means the right of natural gas suppliers to use and interconnect with the natural gas distribution system on a nondiscriminatory basis to distribute natural gas from any natural gas supplier to any customer and of customers to purchase natural gas supply from their choice of licensed natural gas suppliers.

(14) The “Office” or the “Office of the People’s Counsel” means the Office of the People’s Counsel of the District of Columbia.

(15) “Person” means an individual, corporation, company, association, joint-stock company, firm, partnership or other entity.

(16) “Slamming” means the unauthorized switching of a customer’s service from one natural gas supplier to another natural gas supplier or to the default service provider.

(17) “Transfer” means the process by which the gas company facilitates the actual transition of the customer’s natural gas account from (A) the gas company to a natural gas supplier, (B) one natural gas supplier to another, or (C) one natural gas supplier to the gas company.

(Mar. 16, 2005, D.C. Law 15-227, § 3, 51 DCR 10549.)

This section is referenced in § 34-1551.