Home Depot Class Action: Tool Rental Fee Rip-Off?

A class action lawsuit accuses Home Depot of systematically overcharging customers for tool rental late fees and damage protection coverage, violating its own contract terms and misleading consumers.

Consumers Affected: Customers who rented tools from Home Depot between December 2015 and the present and were charged excessive fees.

Reason for Lawsuit: Allegations of overcharging customers by calculating late fees on a daily basis instead of the contracted weekly basis, as well as applying additional fees on late charges for damage protection.

Court: The class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Home Depot, alleging that the retailer systematically overcharges customers for tool rental late fees and damage protection coverage.

The lawsuit brought by E&G Enterprise Inc., claims that Home Depot violates its own rental contract terms by calculating late fees in a manner that results in customers paying more than the stipulated "weekly recurring charge." Instead of charging the fee on a weekly basis as outlined in the contract, Home Depot allegedly charges a portion of the fee for each day the tool is late, leading to inflated charges.

“In short, Home Depot bills the ‘weekly recurring charge’ into the first four days the tool is late rather than charging it on a ‘weekly basis,’” the complaint states.

Lawsuit Claims Home Depot Systematically Overcharges Tool Rental Customers

The lawsuit further accuses Home Depot of overcharging customers for damage protection. While the contract stipulates a 10% fee, it's alleged that an additional 10% is charged on late fees, compounding the cost for customers.

E&G Enterprise also takes issue with Home Depot's requirement for customers to dispute charges in writing within a specific timeframe, arguing that this practice is unfair due to many customers being unaware of it.

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that during the period when both the 2015 and 2022 contracts were in effect, tool rental customers were not provided copies of these contracts until after payment and completion of the transaction. It's alleged that Home Depot has no policy mandating employees to inform customers about the 4-day or 25-day exculpatory provisions before payment.

This practice, the lawsuit contends, leaves customers unaware of the fine print containing these clauses until after they have financially committed to the rental.

“Tool rental customers have no way of knowing about the existence of the fine-print contracts containing the exculpatory clause until after they have paid Home Depot and they have committed themselves to the tool rental transaction.”

Home Depot Faces Yet Another Class Action Lawsuit

This isn't the first time the home improvement giant has found itself in legal hot water. Earlier this year, Home Depot was hit with a data privacy class action lawsuit alleging that it allowed Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program to listen in on customer service calls without informing the callers.

In the Home Depot tool rental class action lawsuit, E&G Enterprise seeks to represent a class of customers who rented tools from Home Depot between December 2015 and the present and were charged excessive late fees or damage protection fees.

Case Details

• Lawsuit: E&G Enterprise Inc. v. Home Depot USA Inc.
• Case Number: 1:24-cv-03020-ELR
• Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division

Plaintiffs' Attorneys

• Bradley W. Pratt and Frank T. Bayuk (Bayuk Pratt LLC)
• John A. Lockett III and Alexander M. Heideman (The Lockett Law Firm LLC)
• Meredith C. Kincaid (Cross Kincaid LLC)