The deal reached with The Competition Bureau also means that the companies will now ensure their advertising complies with the law and implement new procedures aimed at preventing advertising issues in the future. The consent agreement is the result of an investigation where the Bureau concluded that Hertz and Dollar Thrifty were advertising enticing low prices to attract consumers. However, those low prices were unattainable because mandatory fees were systematically added to those prices. The Bureau concluded that the companies' price representations were misleading, and it was not sufficient for the companies to provide an estimate of the total price before consumers completed their reservation.
Additional fees
The additional mandatory fees could increase consumers' final price by as much as 10 per cent to 57 per cent. The Bureau concluded that some of these fees were described in a way that implied that they were mandatory taxes or surcharges imposed by various governments when, in fact, Hertz and Dollar Thrifty chose to impose the additional mandatory fees to recover part of their own cost of doing business. The companies will revise the description of their fees to ensure the descriptions are not misleading.
Advertised discounts
The Bureau also concluded that Hertz and Dollar Thrifty advertised discounts that led consumers to believe that they would get a percentage off of their total bill. In fact, the discount was not applied to the total bill and the additional mandatory fees still had to be paid in full. The prices and discounts were advertised across various media, including on the companies' websites, on mobile applications and by email.
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