Expedia faces class-action antitrust lawsuit over hotel pricing

A class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington alleges that Expedia Group maintains a monopoly in the online travel agency market and engages in price-fixing. The suit claims Expedia uses most-favored-nation (MFN) clauses to prevent hotels from offering lower rates on their own websites or through other platforms.

Plaintiffs argue that these clauses, combined with a commission structure that can reach 15% per booking, force hotels to inflate prices for travelers to recoup lost profits. The lawsuit alleges that Expedia-owned platforms, which include Hotels.com, Vrbo, Travelocity, Hotwire, Orbitz, and Trivago, account for approximately 80% of all US-based online travel agency bookings, effectively stifling competition.

The legal action invokes the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act, asserting that the company leverages its dominant search visibility to enforce pricing parity across the industry.