Section 46-3-450. Requirement of obtaining certificate of authority by foreign electric cooperative; applicability of state laws generally; acts not constituting transaction of business in this state

   (a) No foreign electric cooperative shall have the right to transact business in this state until it shall have procured a certificate of authority to do so from the Secretary of State. No foreign electric cooperative shall be entitled to procure a certificate of authority under this article to transact in this state any business which an electric membership corporation organized under the laws of this state is not permitted to transact; and no foreign electric cooperative shall be entitled to procure a certificate of authority to transact any business in this state which under any of the laws of this state a foreign electric cooperative is not permitted to transact. Any foreign electric cooperative to which a certificate of authority is granted shall be subject to all licensing and regulatory statutes of this state relating to businesses of the kind which the foreign electric cooperative proposes to transact in this state. A foreign electric cooperative shall not be denied a certificate of authority by reason of the fact that the laws of the state under which such foreign electric cooperative is organized governing its organization and internal affairs differ from the laws of this state; and nothing contained in this article shall be construed to authorize this state to regulate the organization or the internal affairs of such foreign electric cooperative.

(b) Without excluding other activities which may not constitute transacting business in this state, a foreign electric cooperative shall not be considered to be transacting business in this state, for the purposes of qualification under this article, solely by reason of carrying on in this state any one or more of the following activities:

   (1) Maintaining or defending any action or any administrative or arbitration proceeding, or effecting the settlement thereof or the settlement of claims or disputes;

   (2) Holding meetings of its directors or members or carrying on other activities concerning its internal affairs;

   (3) Maintaining bank accounts, or share accounts in savings and loan associations, custodian or agency arrangements with a bank or trust company, or stock or bond brokerage accounts;

   (4) Securing or collecting debts or enforcing any rights in property securing the same;

   (5) Effecting transactions in interstate or foreign commerce;

   (6) Owning and controlling a subsidiary electric membership corporation or other corporation incorporated in or transacting business within this state; or

   (7) Conducting an isolated transaction not in the course of a number of repeated transactions of like nature.

(c) This Code section shall not be deemed to establish a standard for activities which may subject a foreign electric cooperative to taxation or to service of process under any of the laws of this state.

Code 1933, § 34C-1701, enacted by Ga. L. 1981, p. 1587, § 1.