Three car rental companies have been given until August 30 to report to the European Commission on what they were doing to stop discriminatory practices.
The European Commission recently sent a letter to the CEOs of six international car rental companies urging them to stop their discriminatory practices – however, only Sixt, Enterprise and Goldcar took any action. It deemed that the replies it received from Europcar, Hertz and Avis were unsatisfactory.
The letter refers to several complaints received from consumers concerning discriminatory practices for renting a car online, which prevent consumers from getting the best price offered online.
In a recent case, a consumer from Germany saw the announced price increase by 100 per cent for renting a car in the UK after entering their country of residence.
Michel Barnier, vice-president of the European Commission, in charge of Internal Market and Services, said: “The single market should be a daily reality not only for major international companies but also for consumers in Europe.”
The Commission’s letter points out practices of automatic rerouting following the identification of the consumer’s IP address. The IP address may also prevent the consumer from completing any booking online. Alternatively, with no rerouting, the consumer may be given a different price after having entered his/her country of residence on the website of the car rental company concerned.
The Commission asks consumers to be vigilant and look for good service at competitive prices across the EU’s single market. It calls upon member states’ authorities to use their enforcement powers to the full in order to ensure that EU and national laws are applied forcefully to protect consumer rights.
Finally, it said it would watch developments carefully in this sector and take whatever action is necessary to make the single market a reality for consumers as well as car rental companies.
Rental and leasing of cars account for 5.5 per cent of the complaints dealt with by the European Consumer Centres Network. Price differences between the various country-specific websites of the same car rental company can be significant. Yet these price differences are often applied to the same service provision taking place in the same location and by the same provider.