Just have a question and hope anybody will be able to assist...:

I rented a car last week during the winter conditions and had winter tires prereserved, all no problem, everything fine.

At the counter there was a lady next to me argueing with the rental car company about the extra charges for the winter tires. She was argueing that with the new law there is a legal obligation to have winter tires on the car in snow, etc. She did not want to get charged for these, as this is now a minimum equipment for a car by law (in bad weather). She was furthermore saying that the rental car companies could not charge for seat-belts, headlights, or similar, as this is mandatory by law as well.

I have never spent too much thought on this and have always requested (and paid for) winter tires when the weather was bad, however this made me think why I am always paying...

Anybody has more insight into the obligations of the rental car company..? MUST they have the cars equipped with appropriate tires in bad weather or can they charge an extra fee for these tires even after the new law passed in Germany?