Portable electronics insurance.

(1) Existing law provides for the Insurance Commissioner to issue a communications equipment insurance agent license to a communications equipment vendor, as defined, authorizing the vendor to sell or offer to its customers insurance covering communications equipment and the sale or provision of services for communications equipment. Existing law authorizes employees and franchisees of the vendor to be listed as endorsees on the license for the purpose of selling or offering communications equipment insurance under the authority of the agent's license. Existing law imposes certain requirements on the licensees and endorsees with respect to training and other related matters. Existing law makes it a crime to sell or offer for sale communications equipment insurance without a production agency license. This bill would revise and recast the above provisions by deleting the term communications equipment and replacing it with the term portable electronics, as defined. The bill would authorize endorsees, defined as employees and authorized representatives of the portable electronics vendor, to sell or offer portable electronics insurance pursuant to the authority of the vendor's portable electronics insurance agent license, as provided. The bill would also make changes to vendor reporting, endorsee compensation, and recordkeeping requirements, and would expand the types of products for which a license is required in order to sell portable electronics insurance. Because this bill would expand the scope of a crime by expanding the scope of the products for which portable electronics insurance license is required, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.