Car Rental charging "Eastern European fee" within EU!

TripleAce

I was in Austria last week and rented a car in Vienna Airport with a company called "Buchbinder" - booking and payment was all done in advance via AutoEurope online. I always book via AutoEurope and never had a problem and usually rates a pretty good. I rent cars about 10 times/year as I travel quite a lot and via AutoEurope I get assigned to different car rentals like Hertz, Europcar, Avis, etc, etc, never had major problem with any of them.

I took the car in Vienna Airport, they asked me if I was travelling abroad and I said I was travelling to Hungary also, I signed the agreement and got the car for a few days and returned it with full tank and no damages.
When I got back to Ireland I see a 60€ charge on my credit card from BuchBinder - I emailed then to enquiry and they said that there was a charge of 5€/day for winter tyres and 10€/day for Eastern European Tax and that I signed the agreement - I then looked at the agreement I signed and indeed they are right, that was obviously a negligence on my side to sign without reading, and even though I did not authorize the credit card payment I guess that a signed agreement will give them the go ahead to charge my credit card. I know I won't see my 60€ back but this is not what I am after here.

I have never been charged for winter tyres before when I rented cars in winter time in Southern Germany or Northern Italy, but I can understand this can be a nice legal way for smaller car rental companies to steal some money and get away with it.

What I really want to understand is whether they are legally allowed to charge a "Eastern European Fee" - this makes ZERO sense to me. Hungary is part of the EU as much as Austria is and looks to me totally unappropriate for rental companies to charge a tax on it. This was my first time driving in "Eastern Europe", but surely it is not standard to have a tax like this, especially within the EU!
It is like is I rent a car in Hungary and they apply a "Hitler Tax" if I use the car for travelling to Austria...same thing wtf! :mad:
Did anybody have to pay this before? Is there any way I can check if this tax can actually be applied by rental companies? I am in no way after my 60€ here because it was 100% my fault of not reading the agreement, I just want to screw them and get them to pay a fine for this kind of charges if possible!

Your help is much appreciated.

ardmacha

Car rental companies at Dublin airport routinely charge extra if you want to go Newry, so it is not at all unusual. It is a rip-off. In the Irish context especially so, and this inhibits tourism in the northern half of the country.

The Eastern European charge originated when theft was much more likely there, not sure how things are today.

CiniO

I rented cars few times in Poland, and winter fee for winter tyres always applies within most rental companies in there.
Never heard about any Easter European tax, but last time I was renting with Dollar in Krakow, they asked me if I was driving abroad, which I answered that possibly I will have a short spin to Slovakia. I was told it would cost me something like 8 euros a day for the whole rental period if I wanted to take abroad driving option. Seemed to expensive to me, and didn't bother taking it.

However year earlier I rented a car from Budget in Krakow, and there was no limitations like that. No fee for driving abroad.

killbillvol2

A fee for crossing to another country is pretty common (Spain/Portugal springs to mind). Not all companies charge it and it can be difficult to spot in advance when you're booking through a broker like Autoeurope.