In the recent court case of easyCar v Hertz NL the judge decided that comparative advertising between companies in the Netherlands had to be an exact comparison. The previous easyCar advertising saying "You will find the best reason to use easyCar.com at hertz.nl" was found not to be an exact comparison.
However, easyCar is determined to provide cheap car hire to the Dutch public and is now beginning a new advertising campaign which does make an exact price comparison between easyCar.com and hertz.nl. As can be seen from the advertisement which is presently being used in the Dutch press, the direct comparison shows that hertz.nl is offering a price which is more than double the price offered by easyCar.com for the same rental!
"Don't get ripped off by Hertz," said Stelios the easyGroup chairman and founder of easyCar. "We are more than happy to make exact comparisons between hertz.nl and easyCar.com because it shows exactly how expensive hertz is, more than twice the price of easyCar! I'm not allowed to put it in an advertisement but this comparison does show that the best reason to hire a car from easyCar.com can be found at hertz.nl."
easyCar presently operates a fleet of almost 300 Mercedes A-Class cars from its Wibautstraat site opposite Amstel station in Amsterdam which will grow in size for the summer season. Launched in April 2000, easyCar now has 17 sites across Europe operating a total fleet of 5000 A-Class Mercedes. Through online sales and economies of scale reached at site level easyCar is able to offer prices far below those of its competitors. easyCar intends not only to offer vehicles to the established car hire market but to grow the market through price incentivisation. In other words, if the price is good enough, more people will hire more cars more often. In this way easyCar intends that people who live in cities like Amsterdam and who own a car that they use one or two week-ends a month will actually give up the costs and responsibilities of car ownership and simply hire a car when they actually need one.
The easyGroup presence in the Netherlands is now large and continues to grow. easyJet flies to nine European destinations from Schiphol, easyInternetCafe has two stores in Amsterdam and the easyCar site will continue to grow.