CoStar, Luxury Hotels Hit with US Consumer Price-fixing Lawsuit – Reuters

CoStar, luxury hotels hit with US consumer price-fixing lawsuit

Commercial real estate information giant CoStar (CSGP.O) has been sued in a proposed consumer class action accusing it and a group of luxury hotel operators, including Hilton (HLT.N), Hyatt (H.N) and Marriott (MAR.O), of conspiring to keep room rental prices artificially high.

Seven residents of California, Florida, Illinois and other states filed the lawsuit in Seattle federal court on Tuesday, seeking damages under U.S. antitrust law for alleged room price overpayments.

The lawsuit accused the hotels of sharing competitively sensitive, commercial information through CoStar’s Smith Travel Research (STR) reports that show “performance benchmarking and comparative analytics” for the industry.The defendant hotels shared prices, supply and future plans, allowing participating companies to use rivals’ strategic information to inflate prices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New York, Nashville, Chicago, Boston, Austin and other cities, according to the lawsuit.

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