Expedia, in addition to a few other companies, including Orbitz, Travelocity, Sabre Holdings Corp., Marriott International, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and Hilton Worldwide, were named in a federal lawsuit in California for conspiring to repair hotel room prices, to fend off smaller online retailers selling rooms at lower prices, Reuters reports.
Plaintiffs Nikita Turik and Eric Balk are reportedly seeking class action status, alleging that the defendants violated state antitrust laws with “agreements whereby hotel operators ceased doing business with online retailers who sold rooms below certain prices.”
For a corporation like Expedia, that is particularly ironic, considering it’s component to the FairSearch Coalition, a company made from travel sites prepare to “promote economic growth, innovation and selection around the Internet ecosystem by fostering and defending competition in online and mobile search,” because the coalition puts it.
The coalition first came together when Google announced its intent to accumulate ITA Software. It looked for the purchase to be blocked by regulators, but that didn’t happen. Ever since, the organization have been vocally opposing Google’s business practices at nearly every turn.
For example, last month, FairSearch offered an announcement saying, “The FairSearch coalition would welcome a rapid, substantive and legally enforceable change to Google’s business practices that steer users to its own products and far from others,” as Google was facing the eu Commission.
Expedia has not touch upon the suit. We’ve reached out to FairSearch for comment. We’ll update if we receive one.