I've heard rumblings for a while, but for me it is now confirmed. They are doing shows...period. I would agree that in this scenario they stand to loose a good portion of their dry rentals and in the end that's what I'm curious about from this community. How does this reality affect your decision on where/who to use as your dry rental provider?
The shirts are (or were) RED.
On the audio side of things, a couple of large manufacturers were offering "demo" gear to end users (along with factory tech support) so they could showcase their wares while allowing the end users "free" gear and the ability to underbid shows they probably had no business taking on anyway. Not surprisingly, existing owners of those products and providers with other brands were not amused... but it was the existing customer base that complained the loudest. At least one of those manufacturers has mostly discontinued such practices when current owners threatened to sell off their gear and replace with other brands. The sell off would have diluted the sales of new gear...
There are lots of ways both rental shops and manufacturers are muddying the waters of their traditional ways of doing things, but if VER is pissing you off, don't rent from them.