Hotels and booking sites now face suit in U.S. over hotel price-fixing "conspiracy"
Skift Take
This suit could get really interesting, although only the courts or regulators will ultimately decide if the anti-competition claims pass legal muster. If the plaintiffs prevail, then hotel-OTA rate-parity practices in the U.S. could get tossed out the window.
On the heels of UK regulators provisionally finding that major hotel chains and online travel agencies engage in anticompetitive practices, a class-action lawsuit was filed in California today (embedded end of story) similarly alleging a price-fixing scheme that harms consumers.
The law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro filed the class action complaint August 20 in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, on behalf of U.S. consumers and against defendants Expedia (Hotels.com), Priceline (Booking.com), Sabre (Travelocity), Orbitz Worldwide, Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental, Trump International, and Kimpton Hotels.
The suit is a bit sloppy at points, erroneously alleging that OTAs purchase "and take title" to hotel rooms from the chains under the merchant model, and at another juncture the plaintiffs claim that Sabre owns Booking.com, which it doesn't.
Is rate parity anti-consumer?
But, the cor
