The parent companies of Caesars, Harrah’s, Borgata and Hard Rock in Atlantic City are facing a class action lawsuit over alleged price fixing.
Accusations of artificially boosting room rental rates in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
Lawsuit: Defendants are engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to fix, raise, and stabilize the prices of casino-hotel guest rooms in Atlantic City.
Until recently, casino-hotels historically set their room rates independently from each
other in response to market forces.
According to the lawsuit, New Jersey gaming regulators’ data showed “substantial increases” in Atlantic City room rates but decreases in occupancy rates.
Atlantic City casino-hotels charged 25% more for rooms in 2022 than in 2019, despite renting 5% fewer rooms, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit (see PDF below) also named tech company Cendyn Group LLC, which sells the shared pricing algorithm platform.
Lawsuit: Casino-Hotel Defendants’ shared use of pricing algorithm platform by Cendyn. This allowed them to charge more for rooms while knowing that their competitors would not lower their own room rates to take sharei.e., what would have happened under normal competitive conditions.
Lawsuit: Casino-Hotel Defendants replaced a historically independent room pricing system in Atlantic City with an interdependent, collusive one.
Lawsuit: The Atlantic City Casino Hotels allegedly “misrepresented to guests, through omissions, half-truths, and misrepresentations, how they determined room rates.”
Having been in the hospitality industry for many year now retired I don’t see how the plaintiff will win.
It’s easy to go on another hotel’s web site to shop prices and adjust yours as needed.all these other sources will not prevail.