Feel Like You’re Overpaying for Hotels? Blame Expedia, a New Lawsuit Says.

A lawsuit filed this month accuses Expedia Group of forcing millions of customers to pay significantly inflated prices for hotels, even if they’ve never used the booking giant’s platforms.

The suit, which is seeking class-action status, was filed Oct. 2 in the Western District of Washington. It claims Expedia violated federal antitrust laws by enforcing contracts that prevented hotels from offering lower rates via their own websites, loyalty portals or call centers. If a hotel offered a lower price on a competing platform, the suit claims Expedia would ensure the hotel was harder to find on the company’s platforms.

An Expedia spokesperson called the allegations “meritless,” saying the company has brought transparency, competitive offerings and better value to the world of travel shopping for more than 30 years.

Expedia charges hotels a commission, which is calculated into the price customers pay to book a room on its site. The lawsuit claims hotels were forced to inflate rates to match Expedia’s prices because of so-called parity clauses, which prevent hotels from offering better rates elsewhere, even when it is cheaper to sell rooms directly to the customer. This practice, the suit claims, inflated hotel prices across the board by 15 to 30 percent, an amount which corresponds to Expedia’s commission.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/travel/expedia-lawsuit-hotel-prices.html