I have been preparing for an upcoming Hertz rental in Germany and reading this forum (and others) I have come across numerous reports of repair scams in foreign countries

The general scam seems to be that extremely minor (tiny scuff or scratch) damage, that would be unnoticed by 99% of consumers, is spotted right away by the Hertz employee when returning the car.
The scam seems obvious because the Hertz employees are going right away to the damage location and trying to bill it to the consumer.
They are hoping you just have your credit card insurance pay for it, they don't actually repair the tiny scuff marks, then bill the same damage to the next unsuspecting customer that comes along.

The way around all of these scams is to file for arbitration against Hertz in the USA.
It does not matter that the issue happened in another country, if you made the reservation through their main website Hertz.com then the USA headquarters in Estero Florida is subject to the arbitration clause.

Section 10 of the terms has the arbitration clause.
https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/membe...sAndConditions

You or we may commence an arbitration by providing a written demand for arbitration to the other (to us, The Hertz Corporation, 8501 Williams Road, Estero, FL 33928, Attn: Arbitration) and two copies of the demand to the AAA. If You seek $10,000 or less through arbitration, we will reimburse You for any AAA required filing fee.

The filing fee with the American Arbitration Association (AAA) is $200 for consumer arbitration. Hertz is required to pay this back to you (and they will do so).
Here is the real leverage you have over Hertz (and every other company with an arbitration clause).

https://www.adr.org/sites/default/fi...Schedule_1.pdf

It costs Hertz (or any company) about $4,900+ just to respond to your arbitration complaint.
They have to pay the AAA a filing fee ($300), repay your fee ($200), case management fee ($1,400), hearing fee ($500), arbitrator compensation per day ($2,500).

So just the process to start the dispute, to discuss the car rental bill over a scratch, will cost Hertz HQ about $4,900.
So how does the Hertz legal department in Estero Florida handle these issues when they receive your arbitration claim paperwork (which takes only 10 minutes to fill out)?
The in-house legal department for Hertz (and just about any company) will contact you by email and try to resolve the issue outside of arbitration in order to avoid paying that $4,900 in arbitration fees.

As long as your demands are less than $4,000 then it really makes zero sense for Hertz, or anyone, to put up a fight.

When this happened to a family member of mine recently, I helped walk him through the arbitration paperwork process and how to handle the negotiations.
The end result was the bogus charges (extra insurance he didn't request) were cancelled, plus the entire rental was also refunded.
The end result was a free 3 week car rental as a penalty for shady practices by the car rental desk at the airport.

If you did your car rental through Expedia or another company, just check. They all typically have arbitration clauses in their agreements.
Here is Expedia's as an example.
https://www.expedia.com/loyaltyrewar...ards/terms.htm

This strategy of using arbitration to resolve your disputes is extremely effective for minor disputes of less than $5,000.
Almost all arbitration clauses in the Terms agree to repay your $200 arbitration filing fee in exchange for you giving up your right to file a lawsuit.

I have used this arbitration process a handful of times to resolve issues where customer service gave me the run around.
Equifax, Hertz, LA Fitness, Best Buy. If they are trying to screw you over, file for arbitration.
They cave usually right away, refund your money and pay your $200 filing fee.

If you have any questions, post them here. I will try to answer.