the car key is on the counter, the booking-papers printed from home, and out front facing the car – shiny clean and ready to take you out in ferielandet.
But before you reach so far, you should often have the visa card back. For although the tenancy appears to be paid from home, then there is an extra charge that must be paid. Additional costs may come as a surprise, and the tax-finten is apparently so widespread, that it has incurred the EU’s attention.
Here you have now taken action, contacted the five largest rental companies in the EU and asked them to change the practice. More should evidently not, for all five will in the near future to include all the hidden charges in the booking price.
It writes the UNION in a press release, which bilistorganisationen FDM has described.
The five companies who have agreed to comply, Avis, Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz and Sixt. Specifically, they must now change the three parts of their booking-system: All charges must be included in the price, the conditions must be clear and in all languages, and so it needs to be more transparent, what you get and do without for the price stated – especially with regard to insurance.
At FDM is one encountered several cases where the price, which Danish consumers have been asked in view, has been shown not to hold water. It points out Lisa Brasch, who is a lawyer in bilistorganisationen.
– That it is far from always the case (that the price keeps, red) shows the number of enquiries FDM through the years have been from members who have ended up with paying much more for their car than they booked it for. Therefore, it is only good that the total bookingpris now will be without surprises, she says to the FDM.dk and adds:
– It is good for consumers and transparency, and in the end, it can also give the companies a higher credibility and higher customer satisfaction.
Consumers may not, however, be absolutely sure not to run into a sales pitch when they pick up the rental car. According to the FDM it will still be possible for companies to sell extra insurance at the counter.
While the Enterprise and Sixt have already changed their practices, has the other been allowed to wait a little. The new guidelines will, for example, apply from may with Newspaper, June with Europcar and the first quarter of 2020 at the Hertz.
the EU Commission writes in a press release, the five companies account for two out of the three lejebiler in the EU. It is not immediately clear whether the EU will continue its rundringning for smaller companies, which constitute the last third. The EU, write only that one ‘will continue to keep an eye on the entire industry.
Continues, companies that use hidden fees, so that ’the competent authority may choose to resort to enforcement measures’, writes the Commission.