In October 2015, Berger & Montague litigators Sherrie Savett and Michael Fantini won a final judgment for more than $29 million for the city of Chicago against Expedia Inc., Hotels.com L.P. and Hotwire Inc. for underpaying hotel taxes to the city. The case was one of the first of its kind when it was originally filed in 2005.
In City of Chicago v. Hotels.com, the city alleged that defendant online travel companies violated the Chicago Hotel Accommodations Tax Ordinance when renting Chicago hotel rooms. Chicago hotels made rooms available to the companies for certain net rates. The companies marked up those rates, sold the rooms through their websites to customers at higher marked-up prices and collected all payments and taxes from customers for the rooms. The companies remitted taxes to the city based on the lower rates set by the hotels, the city said.
