{"id":3498,"date":"2024-10-02T17:31:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T17:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/?p=3498"},"modified":"2024-10-10T13:29:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T13:29:34","slug":"casino-hotel-price-fixing-lawsuits-continue-to-go-resorts-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/2024\/10\/02\/casino-hotel-price-fixing-lawsuits-continue-to-go-resorts-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Casino Hotel Price-Fixing Lawsuits Continue to Go Resorts\u2019 Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas and Atlantic City casino hotels continue to defend how they price their hotel rooms amid two proposed class-action lawsuits alleging that resorts have conspired to overcharge consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"casino
A screenshot of Kayak.com for a room in Atlantic City shows similar rates for some hotels. A class-action lawsuit levying price-fixing allegations against several Atlantic City casinos has been dismissed with prejudice. (Image: Casino.org<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To date, federal courts have ruled against plaintiffs\u2019 claims that by sharing sensitive information such as real-time occupancy data with a third party, which then disseminates that information back to hotels with recommended room rates, participating resorts are engaging in price-fixing. <\/span>Federal antitrust laws, specifically the Sherman Act, prohibit companies from conspiring<\/a> to monopolize or attempting to monopolize a market for products and\/or services like hotel rooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

In dismissing an appeal of Atlantic City casinos allegedly participating in price gouging, New Jersey US District Court<\/a> Judge Karen Williams said the lawsuit lacked evidence to prove such claims. Williams dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed or appealed again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Case Remains in Nevada<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

In May, a federal district court judge in Nevada dismissed a similarly proposed<\/a> class-action lawsuit alleging that several casinos on the Las Vegas Strip engaged in price-fixing. Nevada\u2019s US District Chief Judge Miranda Du dismissed the case but without prejudice, which allowed the plaintiffs to this week appeal the matter to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Williams\u2019 ruling, the odds of the federal appellate court in San Francisco accepting the challenge presumably lengthen. In both cases, attorneys for the proposed classes argued that by utilizing the third-party Cendyn, a hotel software provider, casinos are duping customers into paying more for a room.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Cendyn\u2019s \u201cRainmaker\u201d software continuously accesses a partnered casino hotel\u2019s occupancy data and certain nonpublic proprietary data. The software then \u201cprocesses and analyzes\u201d the data inputs for that individual hotel. The service then uses an algorithm with \u201cother supply and demand data\u201d from competing hotels to recommend an \u201coptimal\u201d rate for the casino hotel\u2019s rooms.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The casino may adopt or reject Rainmaker\u2019s recommended rate. The complaints argue that casinos adopt the software\u2019s recommended rate<\/a> about 90% of the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Nevada case, the named defendants include MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, Treasure Island, and Blackstone Group. <\/span>In the New Jersey litigation, the named defendants included Caesars, Hard Rock, and Borgata.<\/span><\/p>\n

Judge\u2019s Explanation for Dismissal<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Williams said she dismissed the Atlantic City casino hotel room price-fixing case because it lacked evidence of a conspiracy among the named defendants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe unlawful agreement alleged in this case is that of a hub-and-spoke conspiracy \u2014 a type of conspiratorial agreement comprised of a central actor (the \u2018hub\u2019) with multiple competitors jetting out vertically therefrom (the \u2018spokes\u2019),\u201d Williams explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In all hub-and-spoke conspiracies, the horizontal agreement among the spokes supports the agreements between the hub and each spoke, and vice versa. Thus, the \u2018critical issue\u2019 for establishing a hub-and-spoke conspiracy is determining \u2018how the spokes are connected to each other,’\u201d Williams continued.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Williams said the plaintiffs needed to present \u201cenough factual matter to suggest that an agreement was made,\u201d something she said the evidence lacked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiffs have offered no allegation that directly evinces an explicit price-fixing agreement, and they thus endeavor to infer a tacit agreement through the Casino-Hotels\u2019 parallel conduct, namely their \u2018knowing use of the same Rainmaker software,’\u201d Williams concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

The post Casino Hotel Price-Fixing Lawsuits Continue to Go Resorts\u2019 Way<\/a> appeared first on Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas and Atlantic City casino hotels continue to defend how they price their hotel rooms amid two proposed class-action lawsuits alleging that resorts have conspired to overcharge consumers. A screenshot of Kayak.com for a room in Atlantic City shows similar rates for some hotels. A class-action lawsuit levying price-fixing allegations against several Atlantic City…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3498"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3501,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions\/3501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/restaurace-pohoda.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}