Over the past several years, a raft of lawsuits have been filed accusing hotel franchisors, franchisees, owners and operators of financially benefiting from human trafficking in violation of federal and state laws.  According to the 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report published by the Human Trafficking Institute, 170 federal human trafficking lawsuits were initiated against hotels in 2019 and 2020, including a series of high-profile lawsuits against some of the largest and most well-known international hotel management and franchise companies.

While these lawsuits are pending in courts across the country, in 2020 the highest number of new federal civil suits were filed in the Southern District of New York, closely followed by the Eastern District of New York.