Expedia faces class action lawsuit from hotels over marketing tactics

Expedia is facing a class action lawsuit over their marketing practices.  

Expedia promises investigation over bait and switch allegation

A California, US-based property, Buckeye Tree Lodge And Sequoia Village Inn, has launched a class action lawsuit against Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz and Trivago (all part of the Expedia Inc family) after claims of a “classic” portrayal of a method to lure customers away from booking at a particular property.
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The suit is charging Expedia Inc with trademark violations, unfair competition and business code violations, amongst others.

The complaint is that Expedia is poaching customers from hotels that are not listed on their site by purchasing keywords and listing the phone number for their own reservation center in order to redirect the customers to hotels that are listed.  

I don’t work with Expedia, but I know that both Hostelworld and Booking have clauses in their contracts stating that their partner properties authorize them to use our brand names for their own marketing purposes.  Essentially we grant them permission to poach our guests for as long as we work together.  

If we stop working with either company, however, that permission is revoked.  They can no longer use our brand names in their marketing.  

For properties who never listed on those OTAs, the use of their brand names could constitute a trademark violation, as is the case with Expedia in this lawsuit.

It is a good idea to ensure that your trademark is legally registered in order to protect your hostel from such practices.

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