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This entry was published on 2014-09-22
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SECTION 417-B
Mandatory disclosures by second-hand dealers prior to resale
Vehicle & Traffic (VAT) CHAPTER 71, TITLE 4, ARTICLE 16
§ 417-b. Mandatory disclosures by second-hand dealers prior to resale.
1. Upon the sale or transfer of title by any dealer of any second-hand
motor vehicle which was manufactured or assembled on or after July
first, nineteen hundred ninety-one and designed as a nineteen hundred
ninety-two or later model and which the dealer knows or has reason to
know that such vehicle is not equipped with a tamper-resistant odometer
as provided in subdivision forty-six of section three hundred
seventy-five of this chapter, the dealer shall execute and deliver to
the buyer an instrument in writing in a form prescribed by the
commissioner setting forth the following information in ten point, all
capital type: "IMPORTANT: THIS VEHICLE IS NOT EQUIPPED WITH A
TAMPER-RESISTANT ODOMETER." Such notice that a vehicle is not equipped
with a tamper-resistant odometer shall also be conspicuously printed on
the motor vehicle's certificate of title.

2. The failure of a dealer to deliver to the buyer the instrument
required by this section or the delivery of an instrument containing
false or misleading information shall constitute a violation of this
section.

3. A consumer injured by a violation of this section may bring an
action to recover damages. Judgment may be entered for three times the
actual damages suffered by a consumer or one hundred dollars, whichever
is greater. A court also may award reasonable attorneys' fees to a
prevailing plaintiff buyer.

4. a. Upon any violation of this section, an application may be made
by the attorney general in the name of the people of the state of New
York to a court or justice having jurisdiction to issue an injunction,
and upon notice to the defendant of not less than five days, to enjoin
and restrain the continuance of the violation. If it shall appear to the
satisfaction of the court or justice that the defendant has violated
this section, an injunction may be issued by the court or justice,
enjoining and restraining any further violation, without requiring proof
that any person has, in fact, been injured or damaged thereby. In any
such proceeding, the court may make allowances to the attorney general
as provided in paragraph six of subdivision (a) of section eighty-three
hundred three of the civil practice law and rules, and direct
restitution.

b. Whenever the court shall determine that a violation of this section
has occurred, it may impose a civil penalty of not more than one
thousand dollars for each violation. In connection with an application
made under this subdivision, the attorney general is authorized to take
proof and to make a determination of the relevant facts and to issue
subpoenas in accordance with the civil practice law and rules.