Travel websites and hotels named defendants in antitrust class action

A number of travel sites, including Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz and Hotels.com, have been accused of colluding with some of the country’s largest hotel companies, including Hilton, Sheraton, Starwood, Marriott and Intercontinental, in a price-fixing scheme, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Monday. 

Two plaintiffs, representing online hotel bookers nationwide, allege these hotel chains have become too reliant on travel websites, as a growing number of hotel bookings take place on these sites. (According to data from TravelClick, an industry researcher, hotel bookings through travel sites accounted for 11.4 percent of all bookings among individual business and leisure travelers last year.)

The plaintiffs also allege that as a condition of doing business with them, the large travel sites made hotel chains promise not to sell rooms below a minimum rate, according to the complaint.  The plaintiffs argue consumers are only granted the illusion that they can shop around for better deals, since the price-fixing makes room prices essentially the same across the travel sites.

The lawsuit comes after a June report that found Orbitz was showing different, costlier travel options to Mac users, after discovering that those consumers typically spent more than PC users when booking hotels online.

Steve Larson

An experienced trial lawyer who handles both hourly and contingent fee cases, Steve has expertise in class actions, environmental clean-up litigation, antitrust litigation, securities litigation, corporate disputes, intellectual property disputes, unfair competition claims, and disputes involving family wealth. Steve regularly represents individuals and businesses in federal and state court and has obtained class-wide recovery in multiple class actions. A veteran practitioner, Steve’s clients value his creative approach to resolving complex litigation matters.

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