Hertz has decided to pay $168 million to settle 364 individual claims that the company falsely reported its own rental cars as stolen. Criticisms date back to 2015 but the issue became national news right around the time the company was also filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020. Hertz has since maintained that any erroneous claims made against customers were the result of a faulty inventory system that’s since been fixed. However, the people that were wrongfully accused of the crime – some of which were held at gunpoint by police and even temporarily imprisoned for a felony offense they didn’t commit – have been seeking restitution in class-action suits.

The rental firm has said the settlement will resolve claims for more than 95 of the wrongfully accused, noting that those false claims represent a tiny fraction of its business.

Hertz asserted that it does about 25 million rental transactions per year. Over 3,000 of those result in theft reports, which ultimately account for just 0.014 percent of rentals annually. Broken down, that means those false allegations are a drop in the bucket. Though it’s difficult to imagine that information offering much comfort to someone that’s been thrown in jail for a crime they didn’t actually commit.

The company maintained that some of the plaintiffs were weeks overdue during the investigative reporting done by CBS in 2021. But the relevant Delaware lawsuit makes direct reference to multiple individuals who attempted to extend rental...

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