Hertz 2007 Annual Report Download - page 70

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We operate car rental locations at or near airports and in central business districts and suburban areas of
major cities in North America (the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and
Canada), Europe (France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
Belgium and Luxembourg), the Pacific (Australia and New Zealand) and Brazil, as well as retail used car
sales locations in the United States and France. We operate equipment rental locations in North America
(the United States and Canada) and Europe (France and Spain). We also operate headquarters, sales
offices and service facilities in the foregoing countries in support of our car rental and equipment rental
operations, as well as small car rental sales offices and service facilities in a select number of other
countries in Europe and Asia.
Of such locations, fewer than 10% are owned by us. The remaining locations are leased or operated
under concessions from governmental authorities and private entities. Those leases and concession
agreements typically require the payment of minimum rents or minimum concession fees and often also
require us to pay or reimburse operating expenses; to pay additional rent, or concession fees above
guaranteed minimums, based on a percentage of revenues or sales arising at the relevant premises; or
to do both. See Note 8 to the Notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual
Report under the caption ‘‘Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.’’
We own three major facilities in the vicinity of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at which reservations for our car
rental operations are processed, global information systems are serviced and major domestic and
international accounting functions are performed. We also have a long-term lease for a reservation and
financial center near Dublin, Ireland, at which we have centralized our European car rental reservation
and customer relations and accounting functions, and we lease a reservation center in Saraland (Mobile
County), Alabama to supplement the capacity of our Oklahoma City car rental reservation center. We
maintain our executive offices in an owned facility in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and lease a European
headquarters office in Uxbridge, England.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Fuel-Related Class Actions
We are or have been a defendant in four purported class actions—filed in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico
and Nevada—in which the plaintiffs have put forth alternate theories to challenge the application of our
Fuel and Service Charge, or ‘‘FSC,’’ on rentals of cars that are returned with less fuel than when rented.
The actions in Texas and Oklahoma remain pending, but the actions in New Mexico and Nevada were
dismissed in 2007.
1. Texas
On March 15, 2004, Jose M. Gomez, individually and on behalf of all other similarly situated
persons, v. The Hertz Corporation was commenced in the 214th Judicial District Court of
Nueces County, Texas. Gomez purports to be a class action filed alternatively on behalf of all
persons who were charged a FSC by us or all Texas residents who were charged a FSC by us.
The petition alleged that the FSC is an unlawful penalty and that, therefore, it is void and
unenforceable. The plaintiff seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages, with the
return of all FSC paid or the difference between the FSC and our actual costs, disgorgement of
unearned profits, attorneys’ fees and costs. In response to various motions by us, the plaintiff
filed two amended petitions, which scaled back the putative class from a nationwide class to a
class of all Texas residents who were charged a FSC by us or by our Corpus Christi licensee. A
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