TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) — Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on July 11 that Avis Budget Car Rental System LLC, which owns the Avis, Budget and Payless car rental companies, has settled a case involving add-on fees for cashless tolls in Florida and other related add-on charges.
According to the allegations, the defendants failed to properly disclose to consumers that they would be charged a daily fee to use the company’s e-Toll service, a payment that came in addition to the tolls the consumers paid while using the service.
The daily fee of $3.95 was tacked on for every day of consumers’ rentals, whether they drove on cashless toll roads that day or not. Consumers, unaware of the e-Toll fee or how to avoid it, often received bills from the defendants a month later announcing the additional charges.
The settlement agreement mandates that the defendants must clearly and conspicuously disclose the $3.95-per-day charge to consumers who rent a vehicle from Avis, Budget or Payless.
The disclosures must happen on the website, in online reservation paths, in confirmation emails and at the rental counter. The defendants are also providing refunds to consumers, and have delivered more than $1 million since Bondi’s office began its case.