Veh. Code, § 5201.1 · Article 9. Display of Plates, Tabs, and Stickers
Veh. Code, § 5201.1
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A person shall not sell or manufacture a product or device in this state that obscures, or is intended to obscure, the reading or recognition of a license plate by visual means, or by an electronic device as prohibited by subdivision (c) or (d) of Section 5201.
(b) A person shall not operate a vehicle with a product or device that violates subdivision (a).
(c) A person shall not erase the reflective coating of, paint over the reflective coating of, or alter a license plate to avoid visual or electronic capture of the license plate or its characters.
(d) (1) A conviction for a violation of subdivision (a) is punishable by a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000) per item sold or manufactured.
(2) A conviction for a violation of subdivision (b) or (c) is punishable by a fine of two hundred fifty dollars ($250) per violation.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 179, Sec. 2. (AB 1085) Effective January 1, 2026.
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=5201.1.
- Text hash
- sha256 df03f1a535bff6acedadb4b1b4d1b7857f2735dbbf82207d99f2c9b1b6e0d3e8
- 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
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Vehicle Code
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