AAA Challenges Hotel Booking Class Action Certification

AAA recently opposed Class certification in a hidden fees class action, arguing that the proposed Class is too varied.

Plaintiff Iris Rothstein motion for Class certification in January. Her class action lawsuit claims that the American Automobile Association (AAA) charges hidden fees and fails to honor advertised discounts when consumers book hotel rooms through Priceline.com.

AAA opposed Rothstein’s motion for Class certification, arguing that the proposed Class is too diverse and that the issues are too individual. Because of this, AAA says that Rothstein’s breach of contract and unjust enrichment claims would be rendered useless.

“None of these liability theories can be uniformly resolved across the class/subclass with common evidence,” AAA stated in their opposition. “Indeed, individualized evidence is needed from each class/subclass member as to the specific hotel rates offered to them on AAA.com, the rate they ultimately chose to book, and the other rates that may have been available at hotels at the time they made any such booking.”

The AAA class action lawsuit was first filed in 2015, and the second amended complaint was filed in October 2018. It argued that AAA advertised “exclusive discounted rates” for their members booking hotels but failed to follow through on these rates.

Instead, when consumers booked rooms through the association, they were allegedly charged “far more” than they would have paid if they had booked their rooms through the hotel.

Rothstein seeks to represent a Class of AAA members who used the association’s website to book hotel rooms since 2010.

AAA opposes this proposed Class for a variety of reasons, including that it is impractical for a class action lawsuit.

A Class is only certified if it meets several federal requirements that ensure that pursuing claims through a class action is the most logical strategy. A proposed Class has to be relatively uniform and must benefit from trying claims as a class action opposed to pursuing individual litigation. AAA argues that Rothstein’s Class fails to meet these and other requirements.

The association argues that millions of proposed Class Members may have booked hotel rooms through its website since 2010. The rates for these consumers would have to be calculated individually, AAA argues, meaning that the Class is highly impractical.

“According to plaintiff’s expert, a particular and granular analysis must be done to determine the specific rates offered to each class/subclass member,” AAA argues. “Specifically, to determine what rates were actually offered to a putative class/subclass member, the plaintiff’s expert confirmed that he would need to go back in time and attempt to recreate ‘exactly the same’ search that each and every member performed.”

“The fact that such an incredibly detailed analysis would need to be done, on the sole question of whether any rate was ‘offer[ed],’ demonstrates that common proof is not available to resolve plaintiff’s ‘exclusive discounted rates’ theory,” AAA added.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jayne A. Goldstein of Shepherd Finkelman Miller & Shah LLP and Noah Axler of Axler Goldich LLC.

The AAA Hotel Booking Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Rothstein, et al. v. Auto Club South, et al., Case No. 1:15-cv-09391, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

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