Association for Consumer Rights calls for more stringent rules for online car rental sites

Have you ever booked a car online and found out you had to pay more when you got to the rental desk?

The Association for Consumer Rights Malta (ACR) wishes to make consumers clearly aware as regards their rights concerning car rental charges. In 2016, this situation was the case of more than 2,000 consumers in Europe, who reported these issues to the European Consumer Centres which help consumers when they travel or buy cross border. It is normally the case that there would be considerably more, who do not bother to report.

ACR would like to see that the relevant authorities take action in this area and place stringent rules and also enforce these rules by making sweeps on car hire online sites to check fairness of prices and transparencies of charges.  It calls on competent authorities including the MCCAA and the Malta Transport Authority to ensure that any abusive practices are immediately investigated and discontinued.

Following a strong increase in the number of complaints on car rental issues, the European Commission and National Consumer Authorities engaged with the five leading car rental companies Avis, Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz and Sixt to address these issues.  Their commercial practices now comply with EU consumer rules.

Consumers will benefit from a number of conditions outlined here.