Breach of Contract Lawsuit Involving Accenture and Hertz
Are you ready to rumble? It’s a battle between heavyweights Hertz Corporation and Accenture, LLP. At the end of April 2019 Hertz sued Accenture in the Southern District of New York for claims that Accenture breached the parties’ contract by failing to deliver a functional website or mobile app.
Hertz’s breach of contract complaint alleges that it hired Accenture to design and develop a new cutting-edge website for the rental car company, and to go along with the snazzy new website, a suite of complementary mobile apps. Accenture began work on the project in 2016 and was paid about $32 Million in fees before the contract was terminated in May 2018. Hertz alleged the following problems:
that Accenture’s work was performed deficiently; and
and that the company missed the agreed-to “live date” for the website twice due to technical difficulties.
Hertz terminated the contract shortly after the second missed “live date.”
Hertz alleged that it paid Accenture $32 Million in fees over the project and then had to spend an additional $10 Million in fees to correct and complete Accenture’s work, plus other damages in the nature of lost profits and business disruption. Hertz sued not only for breach of contract but also under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Not surprisingly, Accenture disagreed with Hertz’s evaluation of the parties’ contractual relationship, stating that it provided design and implementation work that was slowed down by changes made by Hertz and other slow downs in the work due to Hertz. It recently filed a motion to dismiss the Hertz claims and Hertz has filed a reply, but no decision has been made by the court yet, so stay tuned.
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