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EUROPEAN CAR AND TRUCK RENTAL ASSOCIATION
ECATRA
Position paper on the EU Directive 95/46/CE of 24 October 1995 on
“The protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the
free movement of such data”.
Adopted 17 September 2002
Introduction
The European Car and Truck Rental Association is herewith presenting the views of the
European Car and Truck Rental sector on a review of the above-mentioned EU Directive
as invited to do so by the Commission in the framework of its consultation process.
The Car and Truck Vehicle Rental sector
The European Car and Truck Rental industry represents a global fleet size, at the end of
2001, nearly 6 million vehicles rented to companies or individuals either for a short or a
long term period of time.
All these vehicles are bought by the rental companies and remain their property.
Rental companies are providing their customers with a service consisting of the disposal
of a vehicle which vehicle is serviced and insured by the rental company.
The Vehicle Rental Industry is represented in Brussels by ECATRA.
Why is the vehicle rental industries concerned by the Directive 95/46?
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The 6 million vehicles owned by rental companies represent their assets.
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The vehicle rental industries are suffering from an important increase in
the number of stolen vehicles.
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Rental vehicles are also more and more used to perform criminal
activities such as illegal immigration or the trafficking of drugs, alcohol
and cigarettes.
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Rental companies are also more and more confronted with customers
having behaved improperly, regularly damaged vehicles or presenting
false or forged documents.
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ECATRA position paper on the EU Directive 95/46 – Personal data protection
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With the removal of internal borders, vehicles are moving from one Member
State to the other extremely quickly without being controlled up to the EU
external borders.
How is the sector and or the rental industries currently trying to protect themselves
against these facts?
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Most of our member associ