Las Vegas Strip Resorts Colluded to Fix Room Rates, Class Action Lawsuit Claims
A class action lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that four of the main Las Vegas Strip resort operators colluded via data-sharing software to artificially inflate the prices of their hotel rooms. The suit names Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, Treasure Island, and Wynn Resorts Holdings.
Together, these four companies control 26 of the 33 resorts on or near the Las Vegas Strip. It was precisely this control of the market, the lawsuit states, that enabled their alleged scheme.
Attorneys with Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman blame Rainmaker, a revenue management platform employed by 90% of Strip hotels. They claim it uses real-time pricing and supply information data from competitors to formulate rate recommendations that “maximize profits for its hotel operator users” in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The details were reported first by the Las Vegas Review-Journal,
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court, seeks to force the defendants to repay plaintiffs who were forced to illegally overpay, according to a news release from Hagens Berman, which notes that the firm also seeks additional plaintiffs.
“What happens in Vegas will no longer stay in Vegas,” Steve Berman, managing partner at Hagens Berman, said in the release. “We intend to expose the under-the-table deals perpetrated by these Vegas hotels, and we intend to hold them accountable.”
How the Alleged Scam Works
In a competitive market, hotel operators price rooms independently, filling as many rooms as possible. However, information shared and algorithms set through Rainmaker “displace normal competitive pricing and lead to increased room prices,” according to the suit.
Rainmaker’s proprietary software, Guestrev, analyzes hotel guest and room supply information, then artificially suppresses supply, the suit says, so it can make dynamic pricing recommendations biased toward the resorts. Antitrust academics “roundly criticize this type of price and supply exchange as anti-competitive,” the release claimed.
In addition to the Strip resorts, the class-action suit also names Cendyn Group, a Florida-based hospitality data analytics firm, and its Georgia-based subsidiary, Rainmaker Group Unlimited.
These corporations created a scenario in which the house will always win, and they’ve broken the law to do so,” Berman said.
sent e-mails seeking comment to MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Las Vegas, and Treasure Island on Wednesday evening. At the time this article was posted, no replies were received.
For more information about the lawsuit, click here.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first to report about the class action lawsuit against several major casinos on the Strip, including Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, Treasure Island, and Wynn Resorts Holdings. The lawsuit alleges that these companies colluded through data-sharing software to artificially inflate hotel room prices, potentially breaking antitrust laws.
The Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman, which filed the lawsuit, claims that Rainmaker, a revenue management platform widely used by Strip hotels, is responsible for this alleged price manipulation. The firm accuses Rainmaker of using competitor data to formulate biased pricing recommendations that maximize profits for its users, which could violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.
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