At the front passage: Russians have become more likely to challenge carsharing fines
Carsharing consumers have stepped up their efforts to protect their rights: in 2025, the number of lawsuits against fine-contesting services has increased by more than one and a half times. The key argument in favor of the plaintiffs is the companies' lack of documented evidence of damage. As Izvestia found out, successful court decisions are not limited to the return of written-off amounts: users also receive compensation for moral damage and a fine from the operator for violating the law on consumer rights. Izvestia looked into which arguments help tenants win disputes.
How users sue carsharing
According to courts and lawyers, the number of carsharing user lawsuits against the services due to challenging fines has increased by 60%. At the same time, the courts are increasingly siding with customers who are fined for damaging the car or damaging the interior.
"Users have stopped automatically agreeing to the charges and are increasingly challenging the fines,— DestraLegal told Izvestia.
An analysis of judicial practice shows that the courts satisfy the claims of customers of carsharing services in the following circumstances: fixing damage to the vehicle after the end of the rental period; applying penalties for transferring control of the car to a third party in the absence of proper evidence of this fact; writing off funds for leaving the scene of an accident without confirming the fact of a traffic accident; charging fees for idle time of the vehicle without calculating losses; collecting fines for interior pollution or violation of parking rules without photos‑ or video recordings.
"The common denominator of these cases is the lack of evidence of the user's guilt when large sums are automatically collected," the lawyers noted.
According to their statistics, over the past year, the average amount of actual requirements that carsharing imposes on a user is about 147 thousand rubles. However, if the user does not agree, the courts on average recover 207 thousand rubles in his favor. This amount includes the refund of the written-off amounts, a fine under the Consumer Protection Act (50% of the written-off amount), compensation for moral damage and court costs.
It is beneficial for carsharing to collect the amount of claims as soon as possible and as persistently as possible, Boris Feldman, Director of Legal Affairs at DestraLegal, told Izvestia.
"Modern carsharing communication with arguing users increasingly includes elements typical of debt collection: pressure by deadlines, intimidation by consequences, an offer to pay first, then figure it out," the expert noted.
According to the accounting statements for 2024, PJSC "Carsharing Russia" (Delimobil), with revenue of about 23.8 billion rubles, the volume of "other income" (here the amounts of fines and compensations collected from users are reflected) amounted to 4.79 billion rubles, that is, about 20% of all revenue. Carsharing JSC (BelkaCar) has an even higher figure: 1.08 billion rubles of other income with revenue of 4.38 billion rubles, which is approaching 25%.
Taking the side of the users, the courts noted that the carsharing agreement and the lack of damage control at the beginning of the lease did not prove the user's guilt. The carsharing is obliged to confirm exactly when the damage occurred, that it occurred during the rental period, caused by the fault of a particular tenant, and the damage must be commensurate with the amount claimed.
For example, one of the recent DestraLegal cases was about charging a user 160.1 thousand rubles for damage caused to a car, hiding from the scene of an accident and downtime of the vehicle. The claim was filed a month after the trip. However, according to the lawsuit, the accident did not actually occur, and the charges were based on photographs taken after the lease was completed. According to carsharing, the following user discovered the damage.
According to the court's decision, the service did not provide evidence that the damage occurred during the rental period and was the fault of a particular user. In addition, the damage to the car was recorded 18 minutes after the end of the trip, which eliminates the possibility of establishing a causal relationship.
As a result, the court recognized the carsharing requirements as illegal, pointing out that the duty to prove guilt lies with the service provider, not the consumer. The total amount of the recovery in favor of the client amounted to more than 288 thousand rubles. It included the refund of written—off funds, a fine under the law on consumer protection, as well as compensation for moral damage and court costs.
Another carsharing customer was actually involved in an accident when a car collided with a stationary vehicle due to ice. Carsharing charged the user a contractual fine of 100,000 rubles for causing damage to the car in an accident. The user tried to dispute this amount as disproportionate to the consequences. The court of first instance refused to reduce the fine, but on appeal it was reduced to 30 thousand rubles.
Izvestia sent a request to car-sharing services asking them to tell how many users were fined in 2024 and 2025, as well as how many of them were challenged.
Some services are trying to monetize every situation, Anton Shaparin, vice President of the National Automobile Union, confirmed.
— Any damage is assessed by the vehicle owner himself, who is not at all obliged to save on repairs. And here there are costs that the driver of a rented car often considers unreasonable," he said.
However, according to the expert, there are also services where they "turn a blind eye" to minor damage.
Why does carsharing need high fines
Fines are very difficult to challenge in a pre-trial order, said Sergey Radko, a lawyer for the Freedom of Choice movement.
— As a rule, all communication between a client and a carsharing company is reduced to a chatbot or correspondence. The company unilaterally debits money from the user's account, and it can be difficult for a client to prove without going to court that, for example, he did not drift in a rental car, did not commit an accident on it, did not violate traffic regulations," the lawyer clarified.
The expert also noted that, as a rule, fines for violating the terms of the carsharing agreement are noticeably higher than those stipulated in the Administrative Code for traffic violations.
In the last couple of years, carsharing operators have become stricter about violations of the terms of the contract committed by users, says Maxim Kadakov, editor-in-chief of Za Rulem magazine.
— Previously, they could "close their eyes" to some kind of scratch, when its repair cost, for example, 1 thousand rubles. But now, when this repair already costs, conditionally, 5-7 thousand rubles, carsharing does not ignore it," he said. — It's the same with dirty interior or trash in the car. And, most likely, carsharing operators will only "tighten the screws" further.
However, in his opinion, such an attitude can bring drivers to reason, who treat short—term rental cars on the principle of "not your own - no pity."
The growth of legal disputes between users and carsharing services was confirmed by a lawyer, a member of the Union of Blogging Lawyers based at the Moscow State Law Institute. Yulia Kurina Kutafina.
"There have been several similar cases in my practice over the past year," she said. — One of the clients was fined 150 thousand rubles for damage to the car. The service referred exclusively to photos taken a few hours after the lease was completed.
According to the lawyer, the court was able to prove that the damage could have occurred after the transfer of the car to the next user.
The service debited money from another customer for allegedly aggressive driving and blocked the account.
— The basis was telemetry (an automated system for collecting and transmitting data from car sensors. — Ed.), however, the service did not provide a transcript of the data and calculation methodology. After sending the claim and preparing the statement of claim, the funds were returned in a pre—trial order," Yulia Kurina shared.
In one of the lawyer's cases, the service could not prove who exactly was driving, limiting itself to assumptions based on driving style.
How to challenge fines
Experts believe that the increase in the number of disputes is due to an increase in fines, the active use of automatic methods for fixing violations, as well as an increase in the legal literacy of drivers.
To collect a fine, the service must prove: the fact of the violation, the user's guilt, the connection of his actions with the damage, the amount of losses and compliance with the recording procedure. According to Marina Silvestri, a polygraph examiner and profiler, CEO of Kalinov and Partners law firm, drivers often neglect the latter requirement.
— It is especially difficult to work when a person gets into an accident in a rented car, as the service also charges money during the trial, — said Marina Silvestri.
According to her, a significant reduction in the fine can be achieved in court. So, some of her clients managed to reduce the amount from 100 thousand to 10 thousand rubles.
— One of my clients, who had an accident in a rented car, was fined at the maximum rate by the service. However, she concluded the contract under different conditions," the lawyer said and stressed that the amount of fines and the possibility of reducing them below the lowest limit is regulated by the article "General rules for the appointment of administrative punishment."
In addition, according to lawyer Evgeny Stegantsev, the Law on Consumer Rights Protection is applied when considering the case.
— The burden of proving the legality of the fine is on the carsharing. When writing off a fine, there may be no evidence, however, when a client applies to court, the service must prove the violation," he explained.
If the carsharing client does not have enough money in his bank account to repay the fine, the service sues him. In this case, the user is highly likely to be able to reduce the required amount, auto lawyer Lev Voropaev told Izvestia.
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