Veh. Code, § 4456.5 · Article 4. Evidences of Registration
Veh. Code, § 4456.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A dealer may charge the purchaser or lessee of a vehicle the following charges:
(1) A document processing charge for the preparation and processing of documents, disclosures, and titling, registration, and information security obligations imposed by state and federal law. The dealer document processing charge shall not be represented as a governmental fee.
(A) If a dealer has a contractual agreement with the department to be a private industry partner pursuant to Section 1685, the document processing charge shall not exceed eighty-five dollars ($85).
(B) If a dealer does not have a contractual agreement with the department to be a private industry partner pursuant to Section 1685, the document processing charge shall not exceed seventy dollars ($70).
(2) An electronic filing charge, not to exceed the actual amount the dealer is charged by a first-line service provider for providing license plate processing, postage, and the fees and services authorized pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (d) of Section 1685, including services related to reporting vehicle sales and producing temporary license plates pursuant to Sections 4456 and 4456.2. The electronic filing charge shall not be used to pay for additional fees, goods, or services not directly related to the electronic registration of a motor vehicle, including, but not limited to, the receipt by the dealer of free or discounted goods, services, or financial incentives. The director may establish, through the adoption of regulations, the maximum amount that a first-line service provider may charge a dealer. The electronic filing charge shall not be represented as a governmental fee.
(b) As used in this section, the term “first-line service provider” shall have the same meaning as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1685.
(c) This section does not prohibit a first-line service provider from entering into contracts with dealers for products and services unrelated to electronic vehicle registration services.
(d) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2019.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Repealed (in Sec. 5) and added by Stats. 2016, Ch. 90, Sec. 6. (AB 516) Effective January 1, 2017. Section operative January 1, 2019, by its own provisions.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=4456.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 a557253d13042dd61f11b32d09afca1bb541ca278111f6b9b598aea86a9a95f8
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Cited by 2 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Veh. Code, § 4456.5. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.