Hertz Global Holdings, Inc
According to lawsuits detailing the 364 claims against the company, Hertz had a practice of recording some vehicles as stolen even after drivers had paid to extend their reservations. These false reports then allegedly resulted in armed-police encounters and even jail time for some customers who were then "prosecuted as if they truly committed Grand Theft Auto."
Hertz initially denied making false reports, saying that claims about jail time were unfounded. However, in April the company's new CEO Stephen Scherr said that "rectifying the situation is a priority", and that he plans to "do right by" the customers who were mistreated.
Scherr was brought on as CEO a few months before the company emerged from its 2020 bankruptcy in June of this year. In its bankruptcy filings, Hertz was forced to reveal just how many reports it had been making about stolen vehicles. During the four years prior to its bankruptcy filing, the company was making an average of 8,000 reports of stolen vehicles per year.
A suit filed by plaintiffs in Delaware splits those reports into two groups: reports that claimed a vehicle was overdue, and reports for vehicles that Hertz had misplaced, either in their lots or their rental system.
"In all cases, Hertz's goal is to protect its profits and cut its costs, even if it knows their own customers will lose their liberty and freedom as a result," the suit reads.
Another suit filed in Delaware details two particularly egregious cases. In 2018, a man in Georgia turned himself in on a warrant for stealing a vehicle that he had already paid for and returned to Hertz. After missing a follow-up court date, the man was jailed for six and a half months.
In 2019, a woman was arrested in Florida despite extending the reservation on her rental car, leading to a 37-day stay in jail. During that time, the plaintiff was separated from her fiance and two children, missed her graduation from nursing school, and also learned that she was pregnant.
Hertz says that it plans to distribute the $168 million settlement by the end of this year, adding that it expects to recover a "meaningful portion" of the payout from its insurance providers.
