2023 New York Laws › PBS - Public Service › Article 6 - Provisions Affecting Two or More Kinds of the Public Service and the Persons and Corporations Furnishing Such Service › 113 - Reparations and Refunds.

§ 113. Reparations  and refunds. 1. Whenever a public utility company,
  on its own initiative, shall file with the commission a schedule stating
  an increased rate or charge, and  the  commission  shall  enter  upon  a
  hearing  concerning  the propriety of such increased rate or charge, the
  commission shall  by  order  require  the  interested  company  to  keep
  accurate  account  during the pendency of the hearing, in detail, of all
  amounts received by reason of such increase, or by reason of an increase
  received as a result of the establishment  of  temporary  rates  by  the
  commission specifying by whom and in whose behalf such amounts are paid,
  and  upon completion of the hearing and decision shall, by order require
  the interested  company  to  refund  or  issue  a  credit  in  a  manner
  prescribed by the commission, with interest, on or before a day fixed in
  the  order,  to  the customers in whose behalf such amounts were paid to
  the extent practicable and otherwise to the class of customers in  whose
  behalf  such  amounts were paid, such portion of such increased rates or
  charges as by its decision  shall  be  found  not  justified,  provided,
  however, that the commission may waive such refund requirement where the
  cost  of  making  such refund exceeds the total amount of such refund or
  upon a finding that requiring such refunds would  impair  the  financial
  integrity of the company. In the case of temporary rates, the commission
  may  by  order  authorize  appropriate reparation to the company if such
  temporary rates were found  inadequate.  If  the  corporation  does  not
  comply  with  such  order within the time limited therein, any person or
  persons for whose benefit such order was made may, within one year  from
  the  date  of  the  order  but  not  after,  bring  action in a court of
  competent jurisdiction to recover the money to  which  he  or  they  are
  entitled under said order. In any such action a copy of the order of the
  commission duly certified shall be prima facie evidence of the facts set
  forth  in  the  order.  The  commission  after  reasonable notice to the
  company interested may, by  order,  direct  the  company  to  issue  and
  deliver  to  shippers  or  consumers,  tickets,  printed slips or tokens
  specifying the excess received by the company over rates existing  prior
  to the filing of the schedule.
2.  Whenever  any  public utility company or municipality, whose rates
  are subject to the jurisdiction of the  commission,  shall  receive  any
  refund  of  amounts  charged  and  collected  from it by any source, the
  commission shall have power after a hearing, upon its own  motion,  upon
  complaint  or  upon  the  application  of such public utility company or
  municipality, to determine whether or not such refund should  be  passed
  on, in whole or in part, to the consumers of such public utility company
  or municipality and to order such public utility company or municipality
  to  pass  such  refunds  on  to  its consumers, in the manner and to the
  extent determined just and reasonable by the commission.