Review of short-term consumer car hire across the EU
The CMA has secured improvements to the car rental websites of the Big 5 providers and two Spanish companies.
The Big 5 companies
25 March 2019: The EU Consumer Protection Co-operation Network (co-ordinated by the CMA) has concluded its review into the practices of 5 major car rental businesses.
Following joint action by the CMA, the European Commission and other consumer enforcement authorities, the 5 major car rental companies have agreed to make further changes to their online booking practices for EU consumers.
- Press release: CMA leads Europe-wide action on car hire (25.3.19)
This follows earlier action, in 2015, when Avis-Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt made a series of commitments. A CMA-led compliance review in 2018 found that, while the companies had made changes in line with the commitments provided, more could be done to ensure compliance on some of their EU-facing websites. In addition, Europcar had acquired Buchbinder (a German rental provider) and Goldcar (a Spanish rental provider) in 2017 and changes were necessary to bring these websites into line with its commitments.
For more information, see the summary of the areas where further changes were needed.
The companies cooperated with the Europe-wide project and have made, or are making, all requested changes. They admitted no wrongdoing or liability in agreeing to make these changes.
Case opening
30 July 2018: Working with the European Commission and other EU consumer protection enforcers, the CMA opened an investigation into the 5 major car rental companies to ensure full adherence to commitments made in 2015.
Spanish companies
Undertakings
25 March 2019: Centauro Rent-a-Car and Record Go have agreed to make changes to their online booking practices. Consequently, the CMA has closed its investigation into Centauro. It has, however, referred one outstanding matter to the Spanish enforcement authorities concerning Record Go.
Centauro has agreed to:
- present the headline price with the total costs for the full rental period
- where applicable, include young driver surcharges, one-way fees, out of hours fees and fuel surcharges in headline prices
- add textboxes to the webpage to make clear that the availability of optional extras is guaranteed and to recommend that customers check the legal requirements of their destination regarding car seats and snow chains
- include a prominent link to the fuel costs on the webpage so consumers can easily find this information.
Record Go has agreed to:
- include the correct currency display for prices
- where applicable, include young driver surcharges and out of hours fees in headline prices
- where applicable, display fuel surcharges below the rental cost on the search results webpage and at all steps throughout the reservation process
- include a warning about the legal requirements for child seats in its Terms and Conditions and on the webpage
It is the CMA’s view that businesses must display the total price at the start of the booking process when they first quote prices to consumers, and this should include all compulsory charges that are reasonably calculable. As Record Go’s practice does not show a total price when fuel surcharges are applicable, we have referred this outstanding matter to AECOSAN, the Spanish consumer body, to consider further enforcement action.
Both companies cooperated with the CMA during our investigation. Neither Centauro nor Record Go admitted any wrongdoing or liability in agreeing to make changes.
Case opening
23 July 2018: The CMA opened investigations into two Spanish companies following concerns about the presentation of key information on their websites, centauro.net and recordrentacar.com.
Contacts
Project Director
Pauline Goodship, pauline.goodship@cma.gov.uk
Senior Responsible Officer
George Lusty, george.lusty@cma.gov.uk