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Priceline can keep the change, court rules
Priceline had its day in court last week, and won.
A US court ruled that Priceline has no fiduciary duty to tell customers that it often pays hotels less than the customer bids and keeps the difference.
In the case is Lee E. Johnson, Joey Marie Kelly v. Priceline.com Inc, No. 12-1744, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Priceline is a sort of middleman searching through available hotel rooms to find one for a specified price.
Its obligation is to deliver a room at the price the customer offered. And if it finds one for a lower price, it is entitled to keep the difference, the three-judge court ruled in a unanimous decision.
Plaintiffs Lee Johnson and Joey Marie Kelly had argued that Priceline represented itself "as a travel agent with the client’s best interests in mind."
But the court ruled that the online booking site is akin to a "middleman rifling through its inventory of discounted hotel rooms until it locates an item for which the customer has stated a willingness to pay a specified price."
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