The Massachusetts Portable Electronics Insurance license
Portable Electronics Insurance
Lets a phone or laptop vendor sell cover on the device it just sold, under one license that reaches every counter it runs. The supervising entity behind it does the training and keeps the register of locations, and the Commissioner may look at that register on ten days' notice.
Course
None
This license has no pre-licensing course route.
Ways in
1
There is no state exam for this license.
Exam
n/a
Not required on any of the routes below.
Every way to qualify
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Route 1 Apply as the vendor
No state exam for this license
Who may apply
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A vendor, meaning a person engaged in the business of portable electronics transactions directly or indirectly, applying on the Commissioner's form with the licensing fee and the name and address of the individual responsible for compliance with Massachusetts law.
and a supervising entity behind it
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The insurer either directly supervises the program or appoints a supervising entity to, and that entity develops the training for the vendor's employees and authorized representatives and maintains the registry of vendor locations authorized to sell in the commonwealth.
and the training program
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Basic instruction on the coverage offered and the disclosures owed, delivered to everybody directly engaged in selling. It may be given electronically, and where it is, the supervising entity has to run a supplemental education program on the product conducted and overseen by its own licensed employees.
G.L. c. 175, section 162Y(b): a vendor holds the license and it authorizes every employee and authorized representative at every location where the vendor does portable electronics transactions. A location includes a website or a call center directed at residents of the commonwealth, so the license is not tied to a shop. Section 162Y(q) sets the fee as a ceiling rather than a figure, "a fee as prescribed by the commissioner not to exceed $1,000 for an initial portable electronics insurance license and $500 for each renewal", and the Division puts the term at two years. There is no examination and the Division says so. Section 162Y's definition excludes three things from portable electronics insurance and the first matters here: a service contract governed by sections 149M to 149X, which is a separate registration on the Division's other list. Penalties run to $500 per violation and $5,000 in the aggregate.
Read at malegislature.gov on 2026-08-19
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No national seller sells a course for this license, and nothing could. The license goes to the vendor on an application with no examination, and the training that does exist is written by the supervising entity for the vendor's own employees rather than sold to an applicant.