Expedia, which owns Orbitz, is accused of conspiring with the biggest U.S. hotel chains to suppress competition in online travel booking.
Lawyers for Utah Atty. Gen. Sean Reyes said in their filings that they have “reasonable cause to believe that a violation of the Utah Antitrust Act has occurred based upon the allegations set forth in the lawsuit.”TravelPass’ complaint, which also names Caesars Entertainment Corp. and Hyatt Hotels Corp. as defendants, stems from keyword bidding on Google’s search engine in which companies bid on search keywords to display ads at the top of the search results.
According to the lawsuit, Google representative told TravelPass last year that the hotel companies had routinely bid on one another’s brands, and then abruptly stopped. Expedia, Marriott, Choice, Wyndham, Hilton, Hyatt, Red Roof and Caesars declined to comment. InterContinental Hotels said it has not received notice of Utah’s investigation and would respond to TravelPass’ allegations in court.
Of course.