Avis Rent A Car System Data Breach

Posted on behalf of Arnold Law Firm in
NOTICE: If you received a NOTICE OF DATA BREACH letter from Avis Rent A Car System, contact the Arnold Law Firm at (916) 777-7777 to discuss your legal options or submit a confidential Case Evaluation form here. Between September 5 and September 6, 2024, Avis Rental, often referred to as Avis Rent A Car System, LLC (“Avis”), reported a cybersecurity incident (“Data Breach”) to the Attorney General Offices in Maine, California, and Texas. Avis disclosed that on August 5, 2024, it discovered suspicious activity in one of its business applications. A subsequent investigation, concluding on August 14, 2024, revealed that from August 3 to August 6, 2024, an unauthorized party accessed and exfiltrated sensitive and confidential information from Avis’s business application. On or about September 4, 2024, Avis began sending out data breach notification letters to those affected by the Data Breach. Each notification letter includes an offer for a one-year complimentary membership to Equifax, a service that provides credit monitoring. According to Avis’s report to the Attorney General of Maine, approximately 299,006 individuals were impacted by the Data Breach. As the Data Breach was only recently announced, Avis has not yet disclosed additional details. If you received a data breach notification letter from Avis, it indicates that you were affected by the Data Breach. Headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, Avis Rent A Car System, is a major player in the global car rental industry. Founded in 1946, Avis has grown to serve millions of customers annually across its 5,500 locations in over 165 countries. As of 2022, Avis Budget Group, the parent company, reported revenues of approximately $12 billion with 21,000 employees. WHAT INFORMATION IS INVOLVED? According to Avis’s report to the Attorney General’s Office in Texas, the type of compromised information varied among individuals and potentially included:
  • Full names,
  • Addresses,
  • Driver’s license numbers,
  • Financial information (e.g. account number, credit or debit card number),
  • Dates of birth,
  • Certain other personal information.
This information is referred to as your Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”). It provides critical details about you and is an integral part of your identity. Businesses are legally required to protect this information, or they risk incurring statutory penalties and other legal repercussions. When PII is stolen, it can be used by identity thieves to commit fraudulent activities using your identity. The best way to protect yourself after a data breach is to sign up for credit and identity protection services as soon as possible. California offers extra protections and legal rights to its residents through the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). NOTICE: If you received a NOTICE OF DATA BREACH letter from Avis Rent A Car System, contact the Arnold Law Firm at (916) 777-7777 to discuss your legal options, or submit a confidential Case Evaluation form here.

Settlement - $3,767,000

Truck Accident

A 20-year-old man who had been married for just 12 days left home on his way to work. He was driving on Pleasant Grove Road in Sutter County in the early morning when he came upon a slow-moving truck. As he pulled out to pass the truck, the truck driver turned left in front of him. The young man attempted to steer back into his lane but his vehicle struck an un-flagged piece of metal extending from the back of the truck. He died in the resulting crash.

Expert witnesses brought in by the Arnold Law Firm proved that the truck, owned and operated by a hauling firm, should never have been on the highway that morning. Specifically, the rear and side turn signals did not work and the rear-view mirror was in a poor state of adjustment at the time of the collision. As a result, the driver, who had failed to properly inspect the vehicle before setting out that morning, couldn’t see the young man’s vehicle as it attempted to pass.

The poor condition of the truck, its lack of maintenance and the manner in which it was operated were found to be substantial factors in causing the collision that killed the young man. The testimony also established that the man had been making a lawful pass at the lawful speed limit and acted reasonably when he attempted to avoid the collision.

The man’s 20-year-old widow was awarded $3,767,000.77, his parents were awarded $185,131 and the family was reimbursed $11,899 in funeral expenses. Though money is a poor substitute for a young man’s life, this verdict demonstrates that drivers who endanger the lives of others will be held accountable for their actions.