Consumers v Hyatt International Corporation
Consumer Class Action Filed Against Hyatt Hotels
Washington, DC attorneys filed a consumer class action lawsuit on July 20, 2005 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois against Hyatt International Corporation. The claim is on behalf of all guests of Hyatt's hotel in Moscow since July 2002.
The complaint was filed under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and alleges that Hyatt made deceptive and misleading representations through its internet based worldwide reservation system on the rates that would be charged at the Ararat Park Hyatt in Moscow, Russia.
According to the complaint, Hyatt quotes rates in U.S. dollars knowing that the final hotel bill will be paid in Russian rubles in amounts that are higher than those calculated at the official exchange rate. Hotel guests generally would not find out about the problem until they got their credit card statement in dollars. According to the complaint, consumers generally pay upwards of 16 percent more than the amount quoted by Hyatt when their reservations were made.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs estimate that there have been several thousand hotel guests victimized by the deceptive practices alleged in the complaint during the period covered by the three year statute of limitations.
'The practice of inflating hotel charges quoted in dollars, but paid in rubles, seems to be widespread,' stated one of the attorneys that filed the complaint. 'The issue presented by this type of case is not whether the practice is lawful under the Russian legal system'. 'The real issue is whether a U.S. based hotel chain can be held accountable under domestic law if it makes false or misleading statements to potential hotel guests that conceal this practice when it books reservations for its overseas hotel properties', according to one of the Washington, DC lawyers that filed the case.
Hyatt International Corporation is incorporated in Delaware and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The complaint seeks damages under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, as well as injunctive relief restraining Hyatt from continuing the alleged conduct.
