April 17, 2019—A lawsuit has been settled against two rental car companies in California after customers alleged that they were being overcharged for damaged rental cars. According to KPIX 5 News, Oakland-based E-Z Rent-a-Car and Advantage OpCo LLC—who acquired E-Z in 2015—agreed to pay $3.3 million in civil penalties, as well as $1 million in restitution and $300,000 in investigation fees.
The lawsuit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court, KPIX 5 News reports.
“We all know how frustrating it is to accidentally damage a rental car. If you happen to do so, you should not be charged an excessive amount to repair the car or need to worry about whether the cost of repair work is being used to generate revenue,” Alameda County district attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement to KPIX 5 News.
Xavier Becerra, California attorney general, told KPIX 5 News that the rental car companies' practices "caused real economic harm to California consumers, who naturally assumed that the repair bills they received were accurate.”
O'Malley told KPIX News 5 that issues began to arise once the companies merged in June of 2015.
