Rental passenger vehicle transactions: third parties.

Assembly Member Berman, with coauthor Bauer-Kahan, advances a measure that shifts California’s pricing transparency framework for rental passenger vehicle transactions to include third-party quote and charging entities. The core change treats mandatory third-party service fees as part of the “additional mandatory charges” and requires a total charges estimate for the entire rental at the time a quote is provided, including all government taxes and fees, while also obligating clear disclosure of the vehicle’s fuel source before a reservation is completed.

The proposal requires the total charges estimate to be presented at quote time, with online displays showing the total charges in a typeface at least as large as the quoted rental rate and accessible via a direct link from the page where the rate is shown. At the start of the rental, the contract must disclose the total of the rental rate and all additional mandatory charges for the entire rental, up to the quoted amount unless terms are modified after the reservation. Third parties offering quotes must provide the same access to information about additional mandatory charges and present quotes in the same manner as rental companies. The measure also requires that fuel-source information be clearly indicated prior to reservation completion and that advertising include a prominent disclaimer about potential additional charges, with the necessary disclosure that total cost information is available on the applicable website.

In addition to expanding scope to third-party entities such as travel sellers and passenger carriers, the bill establishes a liability framework for compliance between rental companies and third parties: if a rental company provides information to a third party and the third party fails to comply, the rental company may not be held responsible, and similarly, if the rental company fails to provide information to the third party, the third party may not be responsible for the rental company’s failure. The measure preserves the basic structure of base rates, additional charges, mileage charges, and optional items, while requiring third parties to share information and present quotes in parity with rental companies. Enforcement and penalties are not explicitly introduced in the text, leaving reliance on existing consumer protection remedies, and the measure does not specify an effective date within the current language.