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Cal. PUC § 444

This is the official text of Cal. PUC § 444, part of California’s Public Utilities Code — regulates utilities such as electricity, gas, water, and transportation carriers.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) If a video service provider subject to this article is in default of the payment of any fee required by this article for a period of 30 days or more, the commission may suspend or revoke the state franchise of the video service provider or order the video service provider to cease and desist from conducting all operations subject to the franchising authority of the commission. The commission may estimate from all available information the appropriate fee and may add to the amount of that estimated fee, a penalty not to exceed 25 percent of the amount, on account of the failure, refusal, or neglect to prepare and submit the report or to pay the fee, and the video service provider shall be estopped to complain of the amount of the commission’s estimate.

(b) Upon payment of the fee so estimated and penalty, if applicable, the state franchise of the video service provider suspended in accordance with this section shall be reinstated or the order to cease and desist revoked. The commission may grant a reasonable extension of the 30-day period to any video service provider upon written application and a showing of the necessity of the extension.

(c) Upon revocation of any state franchise or issuance of an order to cease and desist pursuant to this section, all fees in default shall become due and payable immediately.

(d) The commission may bring an action, in its own name or in the name of the people of the state, in any court of competent jurisdiction, for the collection of delinquent fees estimated under this article, or for an amount due, owing, and unpaid to it, as shown by report filed by the commission, together with a penalty of 25 percent for the delinquency.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.