Prohibits rental vehicle companies from charging exorbitant rates for unfueled vehicles returned by customers; provides that any refueling charge imposed as part of a rental agreement shall be no higher than a rate which exceeds the highest retail rate of gasoline within a one-half mile radius of such rental vehicle company; imposes a fine of five hundred dollars per violation.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1527
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 10, 2017
___________
Introduced by Sen. AVELLA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Consumer Protection
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to rates charged
for rental vehicle refueling
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 396-z of the general business law is amended by
2 adding a new subdivision 16 to read as follows:
3 16. (a) No rental vehicle company, as part of a rental agreement,
4 shall charge an authorized driver a refueling rate which exceeds the
5 highest retail price of gasoline charged at gasoline stations or conven-
6 ience stores within a one-half mile radius of such rental vehicle compa-
7 ny. Such charge may be imposed when a returned rental vehicle's gaso-
8 line tank is not full to capacity, based on the difference between
9 documented reading of such motor vehicle's fuel gauge obtained at the
10 time such motor vehicle was delivered or picked up by such authorized
11 driver, and the subsequent fuel gauge reading taken at the time such
12 rented motor vehicle is returned to the rental vehicle company.
13 (b) Any violation of the provisions of this subdivision shall be
14 subject to a fine of five hundred dollars per violation.
15 § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
16 have become a law; provided, however, that the amendments made to
17 section 396-z of the general business law by section one of this act
18 shall not affect the expiration and reversion of such section and shall
19 be deemed to be expired therewith.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00616-01-7
