Plain English Breakdown
Checked against official source text during the last sync.
Rental Car Rules for Third Parties
This law extends rental car pricing rules to third-party sellers, requiring them to show total costs including taxes and fees, list mandatory service charges with the base rate, and state the vehicle's fuel source before a reservation is completed.
What This Bill Does
- Applies existing rental rate disclosure laws to third parties like travel agencies or passenger carriers selling rentals.
- Requires companies to provide an estimate of total charges for the entire rental, including all government taxes and fees, as soon as they have specific information about the trip.
- Mandates that sellers clearly state what kind of fuel source the vehicle uses before a customer finishes booking.
- Counts mandatory third-party service fees as part of additional mandatory charges that cannot be added on top of the advertised rate without disclosure.
- Changes rules so rental companies must provide a total charges estimate instead of just a good faith estimate for rates and extra charges.
Who It Names or Affects
- Rental car companies
- Third-party sellers such as passenger carriers or travel service providers
- People renting vehicles
Terms To Know
- Third party
- A person or business other than the rental company that sells or books a vehicle for a customer, such as a passenger carrier.
- Additional mandatory charges
- Fees required to be paid by the renter, including third-party service fees and government taxes, which must be listed with the base rate.
Limits and Unknowns
- The official text does not specify an exact effective date.
- Responsibility for breaking these rules depends on whether one party provided correct charge information to the other before a sale was made.