AB 1374 changes how rental car prices must be quoted and displayed in California. It requires rental companies and third-party quote providers to present a ‘‘total charges estimate’’—including rental rate, mandatory additional charges, and government taxes and fees—once the renter supplies dates, location, and vehicle type, while allowing mileage and certain optional items to be excluded from that upfront total.
Beyond the headline requirement, the bill prescribes display rules for online quotes (typeface and link placement), clarifies which optional charges may still be added at pickup, limits certain transport fees, mandates fuel-source disclosure before reservation completion, and assigns conditional liability between rental companies and third parties when rate data is shared. For compliance officers and product teams, the law creates concrete UI, data-sharing, and contract changes to booking flows and third-party integrations.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill requires a total charges estimate—rental rate plus additional mandatory charges and government taxes—for the entire rental once dates, location, and vehicle class are provided; mileage and indeterminate optional items may be excluded. It also sets online display rules (typeface and link), mandates fuel-source disclosure, and limits certain separate transport or pro rata rental charges for delivery/pickup.
Who It Affects
Car rental companies operating in California, online travel agencies and aggregator websites that provide rental quotes, call-center quote agents, and compliance/legal teams responsible for consumer-facing disclosures and booking flows. It also affects pricing, IT, and contract teams that manage data feeds between rental companies and third-party platforms.
Why It Matters
This bill standardizes upfront price disclosure in a sector notorious for surprise fees, creating concrete front-end and data-sharing requirements that will require technical and contractual changes. Platforms that display rental quotes and companies that feed data to them will need to reconcile user experience, pricing logic, and liability allocation.
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What This Bill Actually Does
AB 1374 insists that a renter who provides dates, pickup location, and vehicle type must receive an estimate of the total charges for the entire rental. That estimate must include the rental rate plus any ‘‘additional mandatory charges’’ and all government-imposed taxes and fees.
The statute allows the estimate to exclude mileage charges and any optional items whose cost cannot be determined before reservation completion based on the information the renter has provided.
When quotes appear online, the bill requires the total charges estimate to be displayed in a typeface at least as large as any quoted rental rate and to be accessible from the page where the rate first appears via a direct link. Rental companies and third parties that provide quotes must make information about additional mandatory charges and the conditions under which they apply available to the people who actually give quotes to customers—so call-center agents, franchise operators, or third-party quote providers must have access to the same charge definitions and application rules.The bill distinguishes mandatory from optional charges.
It allows rental companies and third parties to impose optional, avoidable charges—examples include optional insurance, accessories the renter requests, fees for returns to a different location, refueling charges when a renter returns with less fuel, and age-based surcharges established by the company. The law also permits an authorized-driver fee except for close family members and certain employer/coworker relationships, and it authorizes a higher charge—up to twice the authorized-driver fee—if the company discovers an unauthorized driver who actually drove the vehicle.Advertising and mileage disclosures get their own rules: print or quoted rates must clearly state mileage conditions, including how many miles are covered, any per-mile or gas charges, and geographic limitations within the U.S. and Canada.
Advertisements must include a prominent disclaimer that additional mandatory charges may apply and point users to the estimate on the company’s or third party’s website. Finally, the bill requires rental companies and third parties to indicate the vehicle’s fuel source before a reservation is completed and includes a conditional allocation of responsibility when rental companies supply rate and charge information to third parties: a supplier who provides compliant data is not responsible for the third party’s failure to comply, and conversely a third party that receives noncompliant or missing data is not responsible for the rental company’s noncompliance.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The law requires a ‘‘total charges estimate’’—rental rate plus additional mandatory charges and all government taxes and fees—once dates, location, and vehicle type are provided; mileage and indeterminate optional items may be excluded.
Online quotes must show the total charges estimate in a typeface at least as large as any displayed rental rate and make that estimate reachable via a direct link from the page where the rate first appears.
The bill allows optional, avoidable charges (optional insurance, accessories, out‑of‑location return fees, refueling fees, company-established age surcharges) to be added but requires they be clearly avoidable by the renter’s choices.
Authorized-driver fees are permitted except for close family and certain employer/coworker relationships; if an unauthorized driver is later discovered to have driven the vehicle, the company may charge up to twice the authorized-driver fee.
Section (h) allocates responsibility when rental companies provide pricing data to third parties: a compliant data provider isn’t liable for the third party’s noncompliance, and a third party isn’t liable if the rental company supplied noncompliant or missing information.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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When and what to disclose in a quote; total charges estimate trigger
Subsection (a) establishes the core trigger: once a renter supplies dates, location, and vehicle type (which can be a class covering multiple vehicles), the rental company or third party must provide a total charges estimate including rental rate, additional mandatory charges, and government taxes and fees. It also bars any fee that is required as a condition of hiring the vehicle from being buried outside that rental rate/additional mandatory charges structure. Practically, this creates a data moment: booking systems must be able to calculate government taxes and known mandatory charges as soon as minimal rental inputs are available.
Detailed internet and quoting rules for rental companies and third parties
Subsection (b) splits duties between rental companies and third parties but applies the same basic rules to both. At quote time they must provide the total charges estimate, and online the total must appear in a typeface at least as large as the rental rate and be reachable from the first-rate page via a direct link. The statute allows the estimate to exclude mileage charges and optional items that cannot be priced before reservation completion. It also requires making charge definitions and applicability available to the people who actually give quotes, which forces internal documentation, training, and data-feed changes for organizations that franchise or outsource quoting.
Optional charges that may be added at transaction time
Subsection (c) clarifies which extra charges remain permissible: those tied to optional items or services the renter could avoid, such as optional insurance, requested accessories, one‑way return service fees, and refueling fees. It explicitly permits reasonable age‑based surcharges established by the rental company. This preserves seller flexibility while drawing a bright line between mandatory transaction costs that must be disclosed up front and optional, avoidable add-ons.
Authorized and unauthorized driver fees
These paragraphs allow rental companies and third parties to charge an authorized‑driver fee but carve out exceptions for immediate family members and certain employer/coworker relationships. If the company later learns an unauthorized driver drove the vehicle, it may impose up to twice the authorized‑driver fee. The provision combines a narrow list of exemptions with an enforcement mechanism that can materially raise post‑rental charges if the renter didn’t properly register drivers.
Mileage and advertising disclaimers
Subsection (f) requires that print advertisements and quotations disclose the mileage conditions that apply to the advertised rate—covered miles, per‑mile and gas charges, and geographic limits (U.S. and Canada). Subsection (g) mandates a prominent disclaimer on all rate advertisements that additional mandatory charges may apply and that an estimate is available online, and requires a statement that optional goods or services may trigger extra charges. These requirements standardize what ads must call out and where users must be directed for an estimate.
Conditional allocation of responsibility between rental companies and third parties
Subsection (h) creates a conditional safe‑harbor scheme: if a rental company supplies a third party with rental rates, mandatory‑charge info, and fuel source, the rental company is not responsible for the third party’s failure to comply with the section. Conversely, if the rental company supplies noncompliant or missing data, the third party is not responsible for the rental company’s failure to comply. The provision focuses liability on the party that controls accurate data transmission, but it stops short of imposing affirmative joint‑liability rules.
Delivery/pickup proration and transport fee prohibition
Subsection (i) bars charging renters for rental time before a vehicle is delivered when the company delivers to a nonstandard location and similarly bars charging after the renter notifies the company to pick up a vehicle at a nonstandard location. Subsection (j) forbids a separate transport fee—outside the customer facility charge—for transporting a renter to a delivery location. Together these clauses limit creative surcharges tied to delivery logistics and require rental systems to prorate charges or eliminate separate transport fees where prohibited.
Fuel-source disclosure before reservation completion
Subsection (k) requires rental companies and third parties to clearly indicate the vehicle’s fuel source (using the Business and Professions Code definition of engine fuel) before the reservation is completed. This affects inventory and booking displays for mixed-powertrain fleets (gasoline, diesel, hybrid, electric) and may require new fields in reservation engines and third‑party feeds so customers can see fuel type before they finalize a booking.
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Who Benefits
- California renters who book cars online or by phone — they get an upfront estimate that includes mandatory charges and government taxes, reducing surprise fees at pickup.
- Consumer‑facing teams and call‑center agents — standardized charge definitions and required access to mandatory‑charge rules simplify scripts and reduce ad‑hoc quoting errors.
- Regulators and consumer protection enforcers — the statute creates clear, enforceable disclosure standards and a record trail (quotes, links, and required information access) that aid investigations.
- Business teams for rental companies that centralize pricing — companies that already compute all taxes and mandatory fees early in the booking funnel will benefit competitively from clearer compliance and reduced charge disputes.
Who Bears the Cost
- Rental companies — they must update booking engines, inventory feeds, and online displays to compute and show total charges estimates, implement proration logic for delivery/pickup, and add fuel‑source metadata.
- Third‑party platforms and online travel agencies — they must change UX to display total charges in required typeface/placement, maintain direct links, and ensure their quoting agents have access to additional mandatory charge rules.
- Franchisees and smaller operators — entities that rely on centralized master data may face training and operational costs to ensure local quoting personnel can access mandatory‑charge information.
- Compliance, legal, and product teams — drafting new contracts and data‑sharing agreements to reflect the conditional liability allocation (section h) and to document who supplies compliant data will require legal and operational resources.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill pits consumer transparency against operational complexity and shifting liability: it forces clearer, earlier price disclosure to protect renters, but doing so requires rental companies and third parties to solve nontrivial data, UX, and contractual problems—while the conditional liability allocation can leave gaps if neither party assumes full responsibility for accurate end‑user displays.
The statute draws important lines but leaves implementation ambiguities that will matter in practice. ‘‘Additional mandatory charges’’ is the linchpin term: companies must decide which fees qualify as mandatory (and thus must be included in the upfront total) versus optional. This is operationally tricky for fees that apply only in particular circumstances (airport surcharges, local vehicle license recovery fees) or that depend on renter choices discovered later.
The statute permits excluding mileage and some optional items from the estimate, but it does not prescribe precise rules for when a mileage estimate becomes determinable, nor does it define the detailed methodology for calculating government taxes on multi‑jurisdictional rentals—both areas where different reasonable approaches could produce different consumer outcomes.
The conditional allocation of responsibility in section (h) shifts the focus to data governance between rental companies and third parties. While it protects the party that supplies compliant information, it risks creating compliance gaps if neither side takes full responsibility for end‑user displays.
Practically, contracts and technical feeds will need to require validation, versioning, and error handling to avoid a ‘‘he said, she said’’ enforcement problem. The design requirements (typeface parity and direct‑link accessibility) are concrete but stylized; they will force UX teams to prioritize the total estimate in layouts, yet the law does not specify accessibility standards, machine‑readable formats, or precise placement, leaving room for disputes about compliance.
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