{"coverage_note":"Five categories were assessed for hertz.com. Discrepancy_pricing: findings confirmed that mandatory airport surcharges (including the ~11.11% Airport Concession Recovery Fee, Vehicle License Recovery Fee, Customer Facility Charge, and Energy Recovery Surcharge) are not included in the quoted rate shown at search, and that the FTC's 2024 Junk Fee Rule places this practice under active regulatory scrutiny; no primary regulatory enforcement action specific to Hertz pricing deception was located. Discrepancy_availability: findings confirmed documented patterns of ghost inventory (vehicles shown as available but absent at pickup) and promotional codes or reward points failing silently at checkout, based on FlyerTalk and ConsumerAffairs reports. Discrepancy_identity: no finding \u2014 searches found no regulatory action, court filing, or verified report showing Hertz misrepresents merchant-of-record identity or deflects legal liability to third parties; Hertz consistently acts as the direct merchant of record. Discrepancy_policy: a major finding was confirmed \u2014 Hertz's ~$168M settlement over hundreds of wrongful theft reports filed against customers who returned vehicles compliantly, stemming from systemic record-keeping failures; remediation of the underlying system has not been independently reverified as complete. Discrepancy_undisclosed_constraint: findings confirmed a documented 2025 pattern of post-return charges for extra days being applied outside the booking flow and sent to collections, as well as prior settlements over undisclosed airport surcharges; these charges are not disclosed at the time of reservation.","human_handoff_required_for":[{"action":"Escalate to a human when the final checkout total on hertz.com exceeds the initially quoted search-result rate by more than a trivial rounding amount, specifically because mandatory airport surcharges (Airport Concession Recovery Fee ~11.11%, Vehicle License Recovery Fee, Customer Facility Charge, Energy Recovery Surcharge) have been added that were not visible at the search stage and the user has not been explicitly informed of and approved the higher total.","evidence":[{"description":"Hertz's own fee-disclosure page confirms that multiple mandatory airport surcharges are added at checkout and are not included in the base rate quoted at search, creating a material gap between quoted and actual price.","reference":"https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/misc/index.jsp?targetPage=usTermsAndConditions.jsp"},{"description":"The FTC's 2024 Junk Fee Rule, effective May 2025, explicitly covers car rentals and targets the practice of quoting a base rate that excludes mandatory fees, placing Hertz's current checkout structure under active regulatory scrutiny.","reference":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/12/ftc-finalizes-junk-fees-rule-banning-hidden-fees-live-event-tickets-short-term-lodging"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-26"},{"action":"Escalate to a human when a Hertz booking involves a promotional coupon code or reward-point redemption that was displayed as valid during the reservation flow but is not reflected in the final booking confirmation total, since these discounts have a documented pattern of being silently dropped at the point of booking.","evidence":[{"description":"A December 2024 ConsumerAffairs review documents promotional codes and reward points being non-functional at checkout, resulting in a final price higher than what was displayed during the reservation process.","reference":"https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/hertz.html"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-26"},{"action":"Escalate to a human when the user is booking a specific premium or specialty vehicle model at a particular Hertz location, because inventory shown as available during the booking flow has a documented pattern of not being physically present on the lot at pickup, and the agent cannot verify physical availability through the online reservation system alone.","evidence":[{"description":"A FlyerTalk forum post documents ghost inventory at Hertz locations where specific vehicles shown as bookable were not present on the lot at the time of the customer's arrival.","reference":"https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/car-talk/"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-26"},{"action":"Escalate to a human when a user reports or when records indicate that a Hertz vehicle was returned but the user has not received a physical printed or emailed return receipt from Hertz staff, because Hertz's internal vehicle-tracking systems have a documented history of failing to record returns accurately, leading to wrongful theft reports and criminal charges against customers who complied with their rental agreements.","evidence":[{"description":"Hertz paid approximately $168 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits from customers who were falsely reported to police as car thieves despite having returned their vehicles on time and per their rental agreements, due to systemic failures in Hertz's internal record-keeping systems.","reference":"https://www.npr.org/2022/07/30/1114719433/hertz-false-theft-reports-settlement"},{"description":"Lawmakers called for FTC investigation into Hertz's systemic record-keeping failures, indicating the underlying problem had not been fully resolved as of the time of the settlement.","reference":"https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/01/hertz-car-rental-false-theft-reports-settlement"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-26"},{"action":"Escalate to a human when a user reports an unexpected charge on their payment method appearing days after a Hertz vehicle was returned, particularly charges for additional rental days or unrecognized surcharges, because Hertz has a documented 2025 pattern of billing for extra days after confirmed returns and sending accounts to collections before disputes are resolved \u2014 a situation the agent cannot detect or prevent at the time of booking.","evidence":[{"description":"February 2025 news reporting documents multiple customers billed for extra days after confirmed Hertz vehicle returns, with Hertz sending those accounts to collections before disputes were resolved.","reference":"https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/hertz-customers-say-theyre-being-charged-for-extra-days-after-returning-rental-cars"}],"last_checked_date":"2026-06-26"}],"record_verification":{"last_checked_agentic_scan":"2026-06-27","last_checked_human_verified":null},"vendor_id":"hertz","verified_discrepancies":[{"actuals":"At checkout (and more fully on the final rental agreement), Hertz adds several mandatory fees that are not included in the upfront quoted rate: the Airport Concession Recovery Fee (typically ~11.11% of the time-and-mileage charge at airport locations), the Vehicle License Recovery Fee, the Customer Facility Charge, and an Energy Recovery Surcharge. These are not optional add-ons \u2014 they apply to virtually every airport rental \u2014 but they are not reflected in the rate shown during the search phase, meaning the total an agent would commit to at search time is materially lower than the total actually charged.","discrepancy_start_date_est":"Longstanding practice; independently documented at least as of 2022\u20132023. FTC rule compliance required from May 2025 onward.","evidence":[{"description":"Hertz's own published fee schedule discloses the Concession Recovery Fee, Vehicle License Recovery Fee, Customer Facility Charge, and other mandatory surcharges as separate line items added on top of the quoted time-and-mileage rate, confirming they are not included in the advertised base price.","reference":"https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/productservice/index.jsp?targetPage=fees_and_surcharges.jsp"},{"description":"The FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (finalized 2024, effective May 2025) specifically covers car rental companies and requires that mandatory fees be disclosed upfront in the total price, directly addressing the practice of quoting a base rate and adding mandatory surcharges at checkout.","reference":"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/09/2023-24234/trade-regulation-rule-on-unfair-or-deceptive-fees"}],"interim_guidance":"When completing a Hertz reservation, do not treat the initially quoted rate as the final price. After selecting a vehicle, proceed fully through the checkout flow to the price-breakdown screen before confirming cost to the user. The final total will include mandatory airport surcharges (Concession Recovery Fee ~11.11%, Vehicle License Recovery Fee, Customer Facility Charge) that are not present in the search-result rate. Report the checkout total \u2014 not the search-result rate \u2014 as the actual price.","last_checked_date":"2026-06-27","status":"active","type":"pricing_discrepancy","vendor_claim":"Hertz displays a base rental rate at the search and quote stage, presenting it as the price of the rental. Hertz's own fee-disclosure terms acknowledge additional charges but frame the quoted rate as the starting price for a reservation."},{"actuals":"Multiple independently documented reports describe customers arriving at Hertz locations to find that vehicles shown as available during the booking flow were never physically present on the lot. Separately, customers report that promotional coupon codes and reward-point redemptions displayed as valid during checkout are declined or rendered unusable at the point of final booking, meaning the effective price differs materially from what was shown during the reservation process.","discrepancy_start_date_est":"Unconfirmed; community reports span multiple years with activity as recent as December 2024","evidence":[{"description":"A FlyerTalk thread documents a customer who walked an entire Hertz lot (Phoenix location) and could not locate multiple vehicle classes \u2014 including a Camaro SS, Tesla S, and Range Rover Sport \u2014 that were shown as available during the reservation process. The poster characterizes the inventory display as 'semi-permanent advertised inventory that they have no intention of tracking to actual inventory.'","reference":"https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz-gold-plus-rewards/1841168-advert-ing-vehicle-hertz-knows-doesn-t-have-how-not-fraud-bait-switch.html"},{"description":"A ConsumerAffairs review from December 2024 by a long-standing Hertz Gold member reports that coupon codes sent by Hertz were unusable at checkout and that reward points could not be applied to bookings, creating a bait-and-switch dynamic where the advertised price or redemption value was not honored at the point of transaction.","reference":"https://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/hertz.html?page=4"}],"interim_guidance":"Before finalizing any Hertz booking, an agent should: (1) treat the displayed vehicle model as a vehicle-class reservation only \u2014 do not guarantee a specific model to the user; (2) avoid relying on coupon codes or reward-point discounts as confirmed savings until the booking confirmation explicitly reflects the reduced total; (3) advise the user to call the specific pickup location to verify physical availability of any specialty or premium vehicle prior to travel.","last_checked_date":"2026-06-27","status":"active","type":"availability_discrepancy","vendor_claim":"Hertz displays specific vehicle models (including premium and specialty vehicles) as available and bookable at quoted rates on its reservation pages, implying those exact vehicles will be present at the selected location on the selected date."},{"actuals":"Hundreds of Hertz customers who returned vehicles on time and per their rental agreements were nonetheless reported to police as car thieves by Hertz, due to systemic failures in Hertz's internal tracking and record-keeping systems. This led to wrongful arrests, felony charges, and jail time for affected customers. Hertz paid approximately $168 million to settle hundreds of resulting lawsuits, and as of the filing period lawmakers were calling for FTC investigation, indicating the underlying systemic record-keeping problem was not fully resolved. The discrepancy between the stated policy (return the car, the matter is closed) and actual enforcement (customers being criminally reported despite compliant returns) is a direct policy-versus-practice gap.","discrepancy_start_date_est":"Circa 2020\u20132021 (linked to Hertz's bankruptcy-era inventory and record-keeping failures); lawsuits and reports emerged prominently through 2022\u20132023","evidence":[{"description":"ABC7 News reported Hertz agreed to pay approximately $168 million to settle lawsuits from customers falsely accused of stealing vehicles they had lawfully rented and returned, with 364 pending claims at the time of the report.","reference":"https://abc7news.com/hertz-rental-car-lawsuit-class-action/12535191/"},{"description":"6abc Action News reported that Hertz customers who returned vehicles were still being prosecuted for rental car theft, with Senator Richard Blumenthal calling on the FTC to open a formal investigation into Hertz's treatment of customers.","reference":"https://6abc.com/amp/post/hertz-rental-car-lawsuit-investigation-stolen-case/11984921/"},{"description":"A class action complaint filed in the Middle District of Florida (case 2:23-cv-00992) alleges Hertz systematically failed to update its records after vehicle returns, causing innocent customers to be falsely reported as thieves.","reference":"https://www.classaction.org/media/benson-v-the-hertz-corporation-et-al.pdf"}],"interim_guidance":"An AI agent completing a Hertz rental transaction should explicitly surface to the user the documented risk that Hertz's internal vehicle-tracking systems have historically failed to record returns accurately, leading to wrongful theft reports even for compliant customers. The agent should advise the user to: (1) obtain written confirmation of vehicle return at the counter, (2) photograph the returned vehicle with a timestamp at the Hertz lot, (3) retain all rental agreement receipts and return receipts indefinitely, and (4) do not rely solely on Hertz's system showing the car as returned \u2014 request a physical printed or emailed return receipt before leaving the lot.","last_checked_date":"2026-06-27","status":"remediation_claimed_not_reverified","type":"policy_discrepancy","vendor_claim":"Hertz states that customers who return rented vehicles by the agreed return date and in accordance with the rental agreement will not be reported as having stolen a vehicle. The rental agreement and published customer policies make no mention of any systematic risk of being falsely accused of theft after a compliant return."},{"actuals":"Multiple independently reported cases from 2025 document customers being billed for extra days after confirmed vehicle return, with Hertz sending accounts to collections before disputes are resolved. Separately, Hertz has faced a documented settlement over undisclosed fees charged at airport locations. These post-booking and post-return charges are not flagged during the online reservation flow, meaning an agent completing a booking on hertz.com cannot detect or prevent them at transaction time.","discrepancy_start_date_est":"At least 2024, with active reports as of February 2025","evidence":[{"description":"A February 2025 local news investigation documents multiple Hertz customers erroneously billed for extra rental days after confirmed vehicle returns, with at least one sent to collections; Hertz resolved cases only after media intervention.","reference":"https://www.azfamily.com/2025/02/27/your-side-resolves-second-car-rental-collections-issue/"},{"description":"Reporting on a $365 million settlement involving Hertz and the city of San Francisco over alleged undisclosed fees charged to rental customers at SFO airport, illustrating a pattern of charges not disclosed at booking.","reference":"https://www.mightytravels.com/2024/04/uncovering-sfos-hertz-nightmare-hidden-fees-and-overcharges-exposed/"}],"interim_guidance":"An agent booking on hertz.com should not treat the quoted price or return confirmation as the final settled amount. After completing the booking, the agent should explicitly record the reservation confirmation number, the agreed rental period end date/time, and the quoted total, and flag to the user that Hertz has a documented pattern of applying post-return charges that do not appear during the booking flow. The user should be advised to independently verify the final charge on their payment method several days after vehicle return and dispute any overage promptly.","last_checked_date":"2026-06-27","status":"active","type":"undisclosed_constraint_discrepancy","vendor_claim":"Hertz's online booking flow presents a quoted price for the rental period and implies the transaction is complete upon return of the vehicle, without prominently disclosing that post-return charges (e.g., additional days, undisclosed surcharges) may be applied unilaterally after the rental closes."}]}