I have been writing about Travel Law since 1977 and the last three years have been particularly exciting in terms of the developments in this expanding field of law. Recent antitrust class actions involving the travel industry have been brought by or against airlines, in-flight Internet providers, hotels, tour bus companies, ride-sharing companies and online travel sellers and have involved various types of alleged marketing misconduct such as resale price maintenance, parallel business behavior, misleading and unfair price guarantees, elimination of competitors and unfairly raising prices, substantial market foreclosures and price fixing.
Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus Tours
A popular means of exploring large cities is participating in a “hop-on, hop-off” double decker bus tour. Here, the focus is on concepts such as relevant market, competitive effects and barriers to entry as they apply to New York City’s hop-on, hop-off bus tour market. Specifically, the court in United States of America and State of New York v. Twin America, Civil Action No. 12-cv-8989 (ALG)(GWG) (S.D.N.Y. March 18, 2015), approved a final judgment (and competitive impact statement) settling an antitrust lawsuit. The lawsuit arose from the joint venture of two hop-on, hop-off tour bus companies whereby they “allegedly controlled all of the most competitively meaningful bus stops on hop-on, hop-off bus tours and increased prices for riders by 10 percent since coming together in 2009. ‘By eliminating the competition between them, the largest operators of New York City’s iconic double-decker tour buses were able to raise prices and deprive city visitors of the benefits of a free and fair market’.” “US and NY Settle Antitrust Cases Against Bus Companies,” N.Y.L.J (March 18, 2015). The settlement provided for a payment of $7.5 million and giving up 50 bus stops in high-profile locations including Times Square and the Empire State Building.
