Brussels, 20/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - In the middle of August, car hire companies Europcar, Hertz, Avis, Sixt, Goldcar and Enterprise received a letter from the European Commission highlighting their discriminatory car rental pricing policies.
The six companies automatically reroute consumers following the identification of their computer IP address and prevent online vehicle rentals other than in their own countries. This practice can prevent consumers benefiting from the best prices because of the countries they live in. It is not infrequent that a price offered in a country on the internet is higher than in a neighbouring country, but it is impossible for consumers to benefit from the lower prices offered because of IP address and country of residency practices.
The Commission believes that this practice distorts the single market, particularly the services directive (2006/123/EC), which, in compliance with the European treaties, prohibits discrimination based on nationality or place of residency.
Despite a dialogue with the Commission continuing since 2011, and specific guidelines on this subject, these companies are still carrying out these practices.
The Commission's Internal Market services have directly contacted the CEOs of the companies involved asking them to revise the way they are operating to ensure that consumers are able to benefit from the best prices proposed on the internet.
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Michel Barnier, asserted that “the Single Market should be a daily reality not only for major international companies but also for consumers in Europe”.
Since then, Sixt, Enterprise and Goldcar have provided a satisfactory response to the European Commission about how they will be revising their practices. This does not appear to be the case with Europcar, Hertz and Avis. The Commission has given them until the end of the month to change their practices in this respect. (MD)