Hertz (NYSE:HTZ) has decided to give up on the cash cow of wildly overcharging customers for filling up the tank. Instead of charging $7 a gallon for gas, they'll charge the market price. Oh, don't get me wrong, they'll still charge an outrageous fee for putting gas in the tank when the deal kicks in on July 1. They'll just charge a flat fee of $7 to fill up, plus the market price of gas. What does that translate to in terms of pay, about $100 an hour to pump gas?

I'm pleased that Hertz is getting out of the gas gouging business. Maybe that field has just gotten too competitive lately. It's getting harder to shock Americans with preposterous gas prices. Rental car companies have been charging insane gas rates -- almost what you'd pay in Europe at the pump -- for years. Consumers think of it as their evil little profit center, like phone charges at hotels.

In a story at USAToday, the industry claims that it's only overcharging to scare people into bringing the car back full, so they don't have to hassle with storing the fuel and filling up cars. So why don't they charge that rate for prepaid gas? USAToday did a survey and found that rental car companies sold pre-paid gas at about $4 a gallon, but charged about $8 when someone returned the car less than full.

California government agencies will get a piece of the pie from Microsoft now that they've settled their price-gouging lawsuit with with the company.  Beneficiaries will include local school districts, regional transportation agencies and a wide variety of other state and local agencies that bought products from Microsoft starting in 1995.

The $70 million dollar settlement, if approved by the court, will be divided among the eligible government entities as they buy new computer hardware and software.  They don't have to buy the computer products from Microsoft. Competitor products can be bought with the money too.

This settlement is just a tiny portion of the money Microsoft spends each year as it settles its lawsuits. In fact, according to its 2005 annual report, as of June 20, 2005, Microsoft accrued liabilities totaling $2.661 billion for both current liabilities and long-term liabilities related to all its legal contingencies - and that's only the ones that have been settled.  There are lots of cases out there still winding their way through the courts.  Microsoft does not have to report expected legal costs from a lawsuit until there is a final court ruling after all appeals are exhausted or there is a settlement.