The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit backed the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Treasure Island over alleged information sharing to determine increases in room rates on the Las Vegas Strip.
The suit claimed that the hotel operators violated antitrust laws by sharing revenue management software platforms, including specifically those provided by Cendyn Group and its subsidiary, Rainmaker, to increase room rates.
Clark Schultz, Editor and Analyst at Seeking Alpha said: “The appellate court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to establish a sufficient antitrust claim. The judges found that the use of common pricing software did not, in itself, constitute evidence of an illegal agreement to fix prices. Instead, the court emphasized that merely contracting with the same service provider and subsequently seeing higher prices is not enough to prove a conspiracy or restraint of trade under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.”
“In the ruling, the judges also noted that the software licensing agreements did not impose any anticompetitive restraints. Rather, the decision highlighted that a shift in business strategy from maximizing occupancy to maximizing profitability via higher rates was not inherently anticompetitive or unlawful. Notably, the panel upheld the district court’s decision to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims with prejudice, effectively ending this attempt to pursue damages or injunctions against the hotel companies for their use of such revenue management technology.”
“Analysts think the outcome is a significant victory for the resort industry in general and could set a tough precedent for future class actions seeking to challenge dynamic pricing or algorithm-driven rate recommendations in the hospitality sector.”
The post Wynn Resorts, Caesars and Treasure Island cleared over room rate fixing appeared first on G3 Newswire.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit backed the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Treasure Island over alleged information sharing to determine increases in room rates on the Las Vegas Strip. The suit claimed that the hotel operators violated antitrust laws by sharing revenue management software platforms,…
The post Wynn Resorts, Caesars and Treasure Island cleared over room rate fixing appeared first on G3 Newswire.