BILL ANALYSIS �
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|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
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/26/14)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/23/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, 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. P�rez, 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 Hern�ndez, Melendez,
Nestande, V. Manuel P�rez, Vacancy
JA:d 6/25/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED