COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION Written By Mark Fierro
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ccording to a lawsuit filed on April 24, 2020, and currently making its way through the courts, the major online travel companies have defrauded the State of Nevada by failing to pay taxes amounting to an estimated $200 million to $300 million with tens of millions of dollars per year continuing to accrue, according to attorneys on the case.
hundreds of millions of dollars, with a potential for tens of millions of dollars in payments continuing for the foreseeable future.
Defendants include Orbitz Worldwide, Travelscape, Travelocity, Cheap Tickets Inc., Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Priceline, Hotel Tonight and other online travel firms.
The alleged fraud comes in when the online travel company then re-sells the room at a discount to full rack rate to the consumer and then doesn’t pay the additional taxes that are owed.
This is the basis of the lawsuit: Online travel companies secure large volumes of hotel rooms purchases in big blocks. The taxes on these discounted rooms have legitimately been paid.
Before we go any further, as a point of disclosure, To be clear, it doesn’t appear this was a the author, Mark Fierro, and Sig Rogich are qui bookkeeping error or an oversight. tam “relators” in this case. The online travel companies have been They brought the case to authorities in Nevada repeatedly sued in other jurisdictions and lost and have an economic interest in seeing Nevadans because it was clear they were required to pay taxes on the amount the room was ultimately prevail. sold for, yet their practices continued. To be clear, this isn’t a class action suit in which everyone involved would get an instantly Moreover, plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that Nevada forgettable small check for their involvement in law is just about as straightforward as it gets. the case. “Nevada’s law appears to be among the This is a case in which state officials and county strongest and clearest in the U.S. in this area,” officials may receive a lump sum check that runs to said lead attorney Dominic Gentile of the Clark
