BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                            



           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                       AB 1627|
          |Office of Senate Floor Analyses   |                              |
          |1020 N Street, Suite 524          |                              |
          |(916) 651-1520         Fax: (916) |                              |
          |327-4478                          |                              |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           
                                           
                                    THIRD READING


          Bill No:  AB 1627
          Author:   Gomez (D)
          Amended:  5/6/14 in Assembly
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE  :  10-0, 6/10/14
          AYES:  DeSaulnier, Gaines, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso, Lara, Liu,  
            Pavley, Roth, Wyland
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Beall

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  73-0, 5/23/14  (Consent) See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Vehicles registration services:  disclosure of  
          service fees

          SOURCE  :     Author


           DIGEST  :    This bill requires a business that is licensed by the  
          Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to provide vehicle  
          registration services to disclose to its customers that they  
          could register their vehicles directly with DMV without paying  
          the business's additional fee.

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing law prohibits a person from driving,  
          moving, or parking a motor vehicle on the highway or in a public  
          parking facility unless it is registered with the DMV.    
          Registering a vehicle or renewing a vehicle registration is an  
          easy process that a vehicle owner can typically complete quickly  
          on the DMV's Internet Web site by providing the vehicle's  
          license plate number and paying annual taxes and fees associated  
                                                                CONTINUED





                                                                    AB 1627
                                                                     Page  
          2

          with registration. 

          A registration service is a business that for compensation  
          processes vehicle registration and related documents, including  
          transmitting them to the DMV.  The DMV licenses and regulates  
          vehicle registration services.  In order for a business to act  
          as a registration service, it must obtain a license or temporary  
          permit from the DMV by filing an application, submitting to a  
          background check and inspection of its place of business,  
          posting a surety bond, and paying a one-time fee of $150 and  
          annual renewal fees of $15.

          This bill requires every registration service to disclose to  
          each customer in writing at its place of business and in a  
          conspicuous place on its Internet Web site that the vehicle  
          registration services it provides are provided by the DMV  
          without an additional fee.

           Background
           
          If a person uses a Web search engine to find the DMV's Web site  
          or simply searches for "vehicle registration," the top results  
          of the search will be a private registration service and not the  
          California Department of Motor Vehicles.  The author's office  
          points out that many who search for the site on which to renew  
          their vehicles' registration mistakenly believe that the first  
          Web site listed is the official page of the California DMV.    
          He/she reports that licensed registration services may and do  
          pay Google and other search engines to be at the top of those  
          search engine results.  While licensed registration services  
          disclose on their respective online Web sites and places of  
          business that the business is not a branch of the California  
          DMV, this disclosure is typically at the bottom of the page in  
          small print, where many online customers often do not see the  
          disclosure.  Customers may then go through the registration  
          process through this third-party service provider and be charged  
          a fee for the performance of the service, which they could  
          receive without charge on the DMV Web site.

          The author introduced this bill to inform California vehicle  
          owners that they have other options available to them when  
          selecting a registration service provider.  Without the  
          disclosure required by this bill, many customers may be misled  
          to believe that a registration service licensed by the DMV is  

                                                                CONTINUED





                                                                    AB 1627
                                                                     Page  
          3

          actually the DMV itself.  At this point a customer may pay extra  
          fees for a service that the DMV offers at no additional cost.   
          This bill requires these registration services to inform their  
          potential customers that they could receive these same services  
          free of charge from the DMV in order to prevent them from being  
          misled and misinformed.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  Yes    
          Local:  Yes



           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  73-0, 5/23/14
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,  
            Bocanegra, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,  
            Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,  
            Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,  
            Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell,  
            Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,  
            Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor,  
            Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,  
            Perea, John A. Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,  
            Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner,  
            Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Bonilla, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Melendez,  
            Nestande, V. Manuel Pérez, Vacancy


          JA:d  6/25/14   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  NONE RECEIVED

                                   ****  END  ****












                                                                CONTINUED