Senate wants to proceed against illegally operating rental car companies

Senate wants to proceed against illegally operating rental car companies

More than 4,400 rental cars are officially registered in Berlin, but according to the Senate, many other car providers who are on behalf of companies such as Uber or Bolt are not registered. The city government is now planning to proceed more consistently against these illegal companies.

In order to contain this problem, the State Office for Orders' Matters (Labo) has made agreements with the driving service brokers from Uber, Bolt and Freenow. Accordingly, every vehicle that wants to be listed in these placement portals should be checked beforehand by the Labo.

The Labo states that in the past a variety of such illegally operating rental car companies have been tracked down and imposed high fines. In individual cases, punishments of up to half a million euros were imposed. However, it is unclear whether these punishments were actually paid. So far, the Labo has mainly received information from the police that regularly checked rental cars.

The Senate criticizes that these companies have often submitted fake documents to the placement services without this being discovered in the registration process. This gives these companies an inadmissible advantage over the properly registered and approved rental cars and taxi companies.

The measures of the Senate are intended to ensure that all rental car companies in Berlin comply with the same legal requirements. This is intended to guarantee a fair competition between the different providers. The state government hopes that the increased controls and punishments will lead to illegal auto providers being pushed out of the market and improve the safety and reliability of the driving services in the city.

Berlin is not the only city that has to deal with the problem of illegal driving service providers. Similar measures have been taken in other cities worldwide to contain the illegal use of rental cars for commercial purposes. Such controls and sanctions are necessary to protect the interests of the legal providers and to ensure the safety of passengers.