SB 272-RENTAL CAR CHARGES  CHAIR PASKVAN announced SB 272 to be up for consideration. 1:54:41 PM SENATOR HUGGINS, sponsor of SB 272, explained that this is a consumer protection bill that will help people who rent cars know what their charges will be. He said they had all traveled places and got a quote for a $50-dollar vehicle and by the time it was all done, it was a $75-dollar vehicle because of all the things they didn't know about. He said SB 272 creates full disclosure and if you violate that, it's an unfair trade practice. 1:57:13 PM EDRA MORELEDGE, staff to Senator Huggins, said SB 272 will allow rental car companies to do in Alaska what they already do in 30 other states. Alaska law is currently silent on the issue of separately listed charges on rental car statements for the recovery of fees. This bill would require that those fees be listed separately and be clearly identified on the agreement. In addition to government taxes and surcharges, rental car companies also assess additional cost recovery fees, she explained, and consumers should be made aware of those and be able to see the fees they are being charged on both the bill and the online quote. SB 272 provides for full disclosure and transparency of cost recovery fees that are included in rental car agreements. In addition, it would make violating the provisions of this bill an unfair trade practice. SENATOR BUNDE said she used two different terms and he wanted to make sure that when she said allow the credit card companies to do this, she actually meant requires them to list those separate fees. MS. MORELEDGE responded that Alaska doesn't have any laws currently on this issue, so she used the word allow to mean they were putting a law on the books. SENATOR HUGGINS added that SB 272 requires disclosure before and after. Some car companies have an energy fee or tire fee, but this doesn't allow that. It protects our Alaskan neighbors and doesn't allow big international organizations to gouge them. CHAIR PASKVAN asked if the intent of the bill is that the ultimate charge has to be their advertised charge, and if there are governmental mandated fees or airport facility fees in addition to that, at least the core rental has to be disclosed. SENATOR HUGGINS replied yes, and those fees have to be itemized; otherwise it's an unfair trade practice violation. SENATOR THOMAS asked if anything in the bill requires the print to be any larger in the rental agreements. SENATOR HUGGINS quipped back that they are working on a magnifying glass provision for the older guys. 2:00:58 PM DON FONTE, Director, Government Relations, Hertz Corporation, said Hertz supports the concept of this legislation as it relates to full disclosure to the consumer of any taxes and other charges in a vehicle rental agreement. But Hertz's concern is with the provision that limits the permissible charges that may be included in a rental agreement, he said, and he respectfully urged them to consider amending the bill to allow additional separately itemized charges in the rental agreement aside from those listed in the bill provided so that all such charges are fully disclosed to the consumer at the time of reservation and rental. He said disclosure of those charges is common practice within the car rental industry. He added that all of Hertz's distribution channels, whether it's on their company website, through their 800-number, or even third-party booking sites like Travelocity. The consumer is provided a total estimated price and has available all the component parts of that price. MR. FONTE said that he had forwarded an amendment to the committee that would make those changes and make SB 272 consistent with similar statutes that were adopted in a number of states over the last couple of years. The relevant language in those statutes was agreed to by all of the major car rental companies within the industry. Currently two states have bills pending with their proposed amendment. He said it would simply bring Alaska into alignment with those states. He said that Hertz completely agrees with Senator Huggins' concept of fully disclosing to the consumer what their charges are including the base rate and the total estimated price. 2:03:58 PM SENATOR BUNDE asked why not roll all the costs into the bottom line instead of separating them. MR. FONTE responded that it comes down to the fact that many of the fees are governmentally imposed, and they felt that itemizing the charges is appropriate. It also makes transparent to the consumer what the component parts of the total are. SENATOR HUGGINS said he had made an interesting point, but the amendment Mr. Fonte was representing would essentially "gut this bill," because it would be open-ended and they could list any charges they wanted to. He agreed with Senator Bunde - if Hertz wants to include some things outside of this bill, just add it to the overall price of the car. "This is about Alaska...There are 30 states that are doing what we're describing here, and he talked about two states." CHAIR PASKVAN asked if he felt that SB 272 as currently written is the best protection for Alaska consumers. SENATOR HUGGINS replied, "It's as good as it gets consumer protection wise in rental cars in Alaska." 2:07:15 PM ED SNIFFEN, Consumer Protection Unit, Department of Law (DOL), agreed with Senator Huggins. He said SB 272 provides good consumer protection and the department supports it. He stated that some terms of art were being used by the Hertz representative. There is a base price and a total price. What you see when you go online and rent your car is the base price - $19.95, for instance. Then three pages deep into the process you might see cleaning and inspection fees and fuel surcharges added that bring that price up to $69.95. It's that kind of conduct that this bill would prohibit. This bill isolates only those charges that are actually paid out to a government entity - things like the airport fees, the governmental taxes, and the vehicle licensing fee which is paid to DMV. Itemizing those charges at the end of the transaction is appropriate, because consumers expect those to be added on just like they would expect a hotel to add on the hotel tax that is paid to the municipality. He added that some companies add on a host of "other creative fees" to a bill; consumers are sometimes misled by them because they may think they are required by state law. And while those can be disclosed like the Hertz representative said, when you get off the plane, you're tired and you don't really read the fine print when you sign the contract. You want to get in your car and get to the hotel. Making those full disclosures in a meaningful comprehensive way is tricky. 2:09:57 PM CHAIR PASKVAN closed public testimony on SB 272. SENATOR THOMAS moved to report SB 272 from committee with individual recommendations and zero fiscal note. SENATOR BUNDE objected so he could thank Mr. Sniffen for his good counsel; then he removed his objection. Therefore, SB 272 moved from committee. 2:11:26 PM CHAIR PASKVAN announced an at ease from 2:11 p.m.