A federal judge has turned down a bid by the world’s largest hotel brands, inlcuding Hilton, Hyatt and Wyndham, to shut the door on an antitrust class action accusing them of conspiring to boost room rates by working together to make it harder for consumers to compare prices online.
A Wisconsin man is suing travel website Expedia and its partner Eventblocks, claiming nonrefundable hotel reservations made through the sites cause users’ reservations to land on incorrect dates, causing them to miss the events, such as the Taste of Chicago, which had prompted them to book in the first place.
Comparing the practice to a surreptitious deal struck between the world’s biggest beverage bottlers to not trample on the other’s advertising turf, a new class action lawsuit accuses the country’s biggest hoteliers of illegally conspiring to boost room prices by working together to make it harder for consumers to compare prices online.
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