NYC Bus Tour Lines Agree to Settle Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit

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Several New York City bus tour companies have agreed to pay $19 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging their joint tour bus venture resulted in artificially inflated prices and violated antitrust laws, according to court documents filed Tuesday in New York federal court.

Plaintiffs Natasha Bhandari and Tracey L. Nobel asked the court to preliminarily approve the class action settlement with defendants Twin America LLC, Coach USA Inc., International Bus Services Inc., City Sights LLC and City Sights Twin LLC, which would provide cash benefits to Class Members.

The defendants operate “hop-on, hop-off” bus tours in New York City. These tours allow consumers to hop off the tour bus at places of interest, such as the Empire State Building, and then get back on the bus to continue the tour of the city’s notable sites. The NYC bus tour class action lawsuit alleges that in 2009, Coach USA and City Sights created the bus company Twin America, a “sham joint venture,” while maintaining their separate identities to give consumers the impression that the companies were still in competition with each other. 

Bhandri and Nobel initially filed the class action lawsuit in December 2012. Several other plaintiffs have filed similar class action lawsuits against the defendants. The NYC bus tour lawsuits were consolidated in April 2013. The consolidated complaint alleges that the defendants engaged in an illegal conspiracy to fix prices above the market rate, and that the defendants created an unlawful merger that resulted in a monopoly of the tour bus market.

The plaintiffs allege that the defendants had been “fierce competitors” before they entered into the Twin America joint venture that led consumers to pay an overcharge of $5 or more per ticket. These allegedly anticompetitive practices led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York Attorney General. The government entities have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the bus companies, which is currently pending in New York federal court.

“If approved by the Court, the $19 million [class action settlement] will provide substantial relief to Class Members who could not justify the expense of bringing individual claims, and will supplement any relief that the Government Entities may obtain in the Government Action,” the plaintiffs’ motion says.

Class Members of the proposed class action settlement include anyone who purchased the defendants’ “hop-on, hop-off” bus tours in New York City from Feb. 1, 2009 until the date of preliminary approval of the class action settlement. Class Members would receive up to $20 for each qualifying ticket purchase, reduced on a pro rata basis if the number of claims submitted exceed the amount available in the settlement fund.

Further information about the NYC Bus Tour settlement was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The plaintiffs are represented by Drew D. Hansen, William Christopher Carmody, Arun Subramanian, Seth Ard, Megan O’Hara Easley and Mark Howard Hatch-Miller of Susman Godfrey LLP.

The NYC Bus Tour Lines Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is In re: NYC Bus Tour Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 1:13-cv-00711, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the NYC tour bus class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit http://www.TourBusSettlement.com for more information.

UPDATE 2: The Settlement Administrator has posted the following update on the tour bus settlement website: “On September 21, 2015 the Court issued an order approving distribution of the Settlement funds to authorized Claimants. We expect distribution to begin mid October 2015.”

UPDATE 3: Checks for the tour bus class action settlement were mailed on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, 2015. Readers of Top Class Actions are reporting that they have received checks worth between $20 and $40 in the mail. Congratulations to everyone who submitted a valid claim and got paid!

UPDATE 4: The Settlement Administrator announced that final settlement checks were mailed on April 27, 2016.