Posted on 04/04/2005 7:32:59 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The state Supreme Court on Monday upheld Connecticut's ban on a car rental company's use of a global positioning satellite system to track customers and fine them $150 for speeding.
The unanimous ruling rejected an appeal by American Car Rental, which operates Acme Rent-A-Car.
Acme said the fines were to make up for wear and tear on cars driven at excessive speeds. However, a consumer protection hearing officer determined such costs at about 37 cents per vehicle for each infraction.
According to the state's Consumer Protection Department, Acme failed to warn customers of the fines they would face if the company's GPS system showed they were speeding. Acme also automatically debited consumers' bank accounts or credit cards without notice.
Acme's attorney, Max Brunswick, said no decision had been made about an appeal.
"They didn't do this to make money on the fees," he said. "They did it to hold speeding down to prevent accidents and, of course, speeding was killing the lives of the cars. These subcompacts are not meant to be driven over 65 mph."
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal disagreed. "The state can't condone speeding, but it condemns moneymaking schemes designed as safety measures," he said.
Brunswick said Acme has already returned some of the $20,000 in fines it collected.
The company continues to use the global positioning devices but has not charged fines for speeding since 2001, Brunswick said.
"Sir, according to our records, you achieved 95% of lightspeed and went to Jupiter and back. This, of course, forfeits your deposit."
I was talking to a friend one day and we hatched something like that. Because we had each driven 2200 miles in a weekend (48 hrs) by ourselves, we figured togther we could do a cross country and return racking up 6,000 miles in four days. At that time some of the rental agencies had unlimited mileage deals. We wondered what would happen when we returned the car with that much mileage in a short period of time.
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