Selling car rentals: consumer law guidance
How to comply with consumer law when selling car rental services.
Documents
Details
This guidance was published prior to the unfair commercial practices provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) coming into force on 6 April 2025. These provisions contain broadly similar prohibitions against unfair and misleading commercial practices as under the previous legislation, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs).
More detail on the legislative differences between the DMCC Act and the CPRs is available in the technical note.
For further guidance, read Unfair commercial practices.
Online car rental intermediaries may also find it helpful to review:
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the CMA’s guidance on fake review practices to the extent consumer reviews and/or consumer review information is displayed (in other words, information derived from or influenced by consumer reviews, for example overall ratings, ‘star’ ratings, summaries, review counts and rankings)
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the CMA’s guidance on price transparency and getting consent for additional charges when selling online
If you provide a service for people to book car rental, then the prices and other essential information you show must be accurate, clear and prominent. If it’s not, you risk breaking consumer protection law.
This short guide explains the information businesses need to provide when selling car rental. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has also published more detailed guidance available on the car rental intermediaries case page to help car rental businesses comply with consumer protection law.