Judge Dismisses Price-Fixing Lawsuit Against Atlantic City Casino-Hotel Operators

A federal judge in New Jersey sided with big casino-hotel operators in Atlantic City Tuesday, dismissing a proposed consumer class action accusing the group and a revenue management platform of overcharging for rooms.

U.S. District Judge Karen Williams determined that plaintiffs didn't present enough evidence that Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International and other operators used revenue management platform Cendyn's algorithms and artificial intelligence to fix prices on rentals.

Williams dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, which means plaintiffs can't file it again.

The decision could have ramifications for other price-fixing lawsuits currently pending, including the Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against RealPage for its revenue management algorithm. In the lawsuit, filed in August, the DOJ accused RealPage of designing software to help users “sidestep” market rent competition by utilizing the “most sensitive, non-public” apartment metrics to recommend rental rates.

The litigation has already led some landlords to change the way they set rents. 

This spring, a group of consumers also filed suit against major hotel operators, including Hilton and Hyatt, in Northern California federal court, alleging they colluded to fix prices via algorithmic software in several markets.

In the Atlantic City case, hotel operators contended there was no evidence that the defendants agreed to fix prices, arguing that the hotels didn't have to accept the software's pricing recommendations. Williams determined the plaintiffs failed to show how the hotels used aggregated rate data after Cendyn provided it.

Without that detail, the court said the consumers’ case is “factually and legally incomplete,” Reuters reported.