AGCM

The Italian Competition Authority has closed the preliminary investigation launched against Dexcar Autovermietung UG, a professional operator in the motor vehicle rental sector, and other professionals responsible for the promotion and dissemination of the Dexcar car rental system, imposing fines for a total of 455,000 Euros.
The practice subject to these sanctions, conceived and put into practice by Dexcar from the end of 2014 with the support of other professionals, consisted of the promotion and management of a rental system through which the consumer had to pay a subscription fee of between 547 and 1,950 Euros, in order to get a free car rental for 24 months by joining the Car Marketing Bonus Programme).
According to the system, following the payment of the above fee, consumers were entered into a ‘table’ where, in order to obtain car delivery and free rental, they had to follow a confusing procedure of progression enabled by the recruitment – undertaken even through an advisor – and entry into the system of many other consumers, who in turn had to pay the subscription fee.
In this way, while considerable revenues were generated for the professional, the free rental sought by the subscribers was awarded to a derisory number of consumers (one car out of every 128 subscribers) and derived in any case from the fees paid by other subscribers. Even other benefits promised by Dexcar, such as fuel vouchers, involved only a very small number of system subscribers (16 out of every 128).
The investigation established that the practice was unfair, both in terms of the misleading methods with which the service features, terms and conditions were promoted, and insofar as the system included pyramid selling, classified under the Consumer Code among the commercial practices that are deemed misleading, under all circumstances.

Rome, 20 April 2017