After hundreds of Hertz customers claimed wrongful arrest for theft, five sued Hertz last September.
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Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. announced the settlement of 364 pending claims relating to vehicle theft reporting. The rental operator said this brings resolution to more than 95% of its pending theft reporting claims.
Hertz will pay an aggregate amount of approximately $168 million by year-end to resolve these disputes. The company believes it will recover a meaningful portion of the settlement amount from its insurance carriers, according to the announcement.
Earlier this year, 230 Hertz customers claimed they were wrongly arrested for vehicle theft, and a Delaware bankruptcy court judge ruled that Hertz make thousands of documents public. By September, five Hertz customers filed a lawsuit, accusing the company of faulty inventory tracking.
“As I have said since joining Hertz earlier this year, my intention is to lead a company that puts the customer first. In resolving these claims, we are holding ourselves to that objective,” said Stephen Scherr, CEO of Hertz. “While we will not always be perfect, the professionals at Hertz will continue to work every day to provide best-in-class service to the tens of millions of people we serve each year. Moving forward, it is our intention to reshape the future of our company through electrification, shared mobility and a great digital-first customer experience.”
In its statement, Hertz said it does not expect the resolution of these claims to have a material impact on its capital allocation plans for the balance of 2022 and 2023.