Under pressure from EU-wide action, five leading car hire companies – Avis, Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz and Sixt – have changed the way they present car hire prices for greater clarity and have committed, where they do not already fully comply with EU legislation, to make their prices fully transparent to consumers, the European Commission announced on Monday 25 March.
This is the result of a coordinated action by the network of national consumer protection authorities, facilitated by the Commission and published by the Commission on the same day.
Based on this assessment, Enterprise and Sixt have made all the necessary modifications. Avis has committed to make the remaining changes by May 2019. Europcar, which now includes Goldcar, has committed to do so by June 2019 and Hertz by the first quarter of 2020 at the latest.
These companies undertook to: - include all costs in the total price of the reservation; - clearly describe, in the general conditions, the essential rental services in all national languages; - specify, in the price offer, the price and conditions applicable to optional services, such as insurance that reduces the deductible to be paid in the event of damage.
If these companies do not comply with their commitments, consumer protection authorities may decide to take enforcement action to compel them to do so.
The dialogue with these companies had been conducted by the Consumer Protection Cooperation network (CPC), under the coordination of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, following an increase in the number of consumer complaints received by European Consumer Centres across the EU.
It was concluded in 2017, but the European Commission and consumer protection authorities were not satisfied with the progress made and asked for further corrections. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)