BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 605
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
605 (Gatto) - As Amended March 26, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill prohibits an electronic filing charge, established by
the DMV and levied by a first-line service provider, from being
used for any purpose other than processing vehicle titling and
AB 605
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registration transactions.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Negligible fiscal impact.
COMMENTS:
1)Background. At the time of retail sale, the vehicle dealer is
responsible for applying to DMV for the registration of a new
vehicle and the transfer of registration for a used vehicle.
SB 46 (Polanco)/Chapter 127, Statutes of 2001, established the
electronic vehicle registration (EVR) program, whereby motor
vehicle dealers may enter into contracts to act as DMV
business partners for vehicle registration and titling
purposes. A business partner dealer communicates
electronically with DMV, either directly or through a
"first-line service provider", to register a vehicle it has
sold and then mails license plates, registration cards, and
registration stickers to the buyer.
AB 1215 (Blumenfield)/Chapter 329, Statutes of 2011,
implemented significant changes to the vehicle registration
process, including requiring new car dealers to participate in
the EVR program and authorizing dealers to charge an EVR fee
to customers that cover the cost of electronically processing
registration and titling documents. Current law and DMV
regulations have established the EVR fee at $29 per
transaction, and requires dealers to use EVR through a
first-line service provider.
2)Purpose. It has been reported that a number of first-line
service providers are attracting dealers away from their
AB 605
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existing EVR agreements by incentivizing dealers to enter into
new EVR agreements by providing other services for free or at
a heavily discounted rate. These additional services include
a dealer management systems, digital retailing services, or
website management.
Industry stakeholders argue that this practice does not
reflect the original intent of the EVR requirement as enacted
under AB 1215, which was to only include the costs associated
with vehicle registration and the issuance of license plates.
The author indicates this bill aims to "clarify that the
charge being paid by consumers for electronically filing title
and registration documents with the DMV does not include costs
associated with services unrelated to EVR."
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081