Priceline Seeks Dismissal of Non-Refunded Fees Class Action

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Priceline Group Inc. is seeking dismissal of a consumer class action lawsuit alleging the company should refund taxes and fees for cancelled reservations.

Plaintiff Richard Laquer filed this Priceline class action lawsuit after the online rental company allegedly declined to refund his taxes and fees when he cancelled a reservation for a rental car.

Priceline submitted its motion to dismiss on August 26.

The company now argues that Laquer has no standing to bring the claims he’s trying to bring and that he fails to state claims on which relief can be granted.

Priceline claims that the taxes and fees are nonrefundable and are clearly represented as such to customers at the time they make the reservation.

“Nowhere in this disclosure is there a suggestion that any portion of the Taxes and Fees charge is refundable if a user unilaterally elects not to take advantage of his nonrefundable reservation,” the company says.

Since Laquer is not entitled to a refund, the company claims, his Priceline lawsuit should be dismissed.

Regarding Laquer’s allegations that Priceline failed to pay either local or federal taxes, the company argues he has no standing to enforce any such tax payment requirement.

Any unpaid taxes are an injury to the government body, not to Laquer, the company says.

Without an injury to himself, he has no standing to assert a claim based on an alleged failure to pay taxes, Priceline says.

Priceline also takes issue with Laquer’s proposed Class.

The company argues that because Laquer only made a reservation for a car and made it only through the Name Your Own Price option, he cannot represent any purported Class Members who made reservations for air travel or hotels, or who made their reservations through any option other than Name Your Own Price.

Laquer’s claims based on fraud also fail to allege facts specific enough to satisfy applicable court rules, Priceline argues.

Similarly, the company says Laquer’s claim for unjust enrichment makes only conclusory allegations that fail to specify what Priceline allegedly did and how the company was unjustly enriched at Laquer’s expense.

According to Laquer’s Priceline class action lawsuit, he used Priceline’s Name Your Own Price option to reserve a rental car in San Francisco. He says he paid his named price of $35 plus $19.05 in taxes and fees.

Laquer now argues that since he ultimately did not use the reservation, Priceline should have refunded his taxes and fees.

Laquer alleges that Priceline fraudulently collects funds as “taxes and fees” under the guise that those funds will be remitted to a government taxing authority upon completion of the transaction.

He argues it’s unlawful for Priceline to retain those funds in the event the customer does not use the reservation.

Laquer seeks to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of Priceline customers who made reservations for hotels, air travel or rental vehicles using the Name Your Price option and other nonrefundable options but did not use their reservations.

Laquer is represented by attorneys Darren M. Tawwater and Larry A. Tawwater of the Tawwater Law Firm PLLC.

The Priceline Unreturned Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Richard Laquer, et al. v. The Priceline Group Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-00860, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.
UPDATE: On Sept. 19, 2016, Laquer argued that he should have standing in this class action lawsuit because he is not seeking to enforce the tax on Priceline, only to obtain a refund for taxes Priceline did not pay to the government.