Discount Car's advertised rates were unreachable — $700K to say so

Discount Car & Truck Rentals advertised rental prices that buyers could not actually pay: the advertised rates excluded fees that every renter had to pay, so the final price was always higher than the ad. The Bureau's investigation into the car-rental industry — which had already settled with Avis/Budget, Enterprise and Hertz — concluded Discount was making false or misleading representations about its prices and discounts.

The agreement of 11 October 2018 made Discount the fourth car rental company to settle the sweep: a $700,000 administrative monetary penalty and a review of its practices to bring them into compliance with the Competition Act.

The sweep's logic compounds: once the Bureau establishes that advertised prices must include mandatory fees, every competitor running the same playbook is priced in. Discount was not punished for inventing drip pricing — it was priced for being the last one still doing it.