Expedia Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Wrong Event Dates

Customers have filed a class action lawsuit claiming that Expedia misdates event listings and then refuses to refund consumers for the rooms they purchased for the incorrect dates. 

The consumers claim that this practice is deceptive and causes financial injury.

Plaintiff Brian McCarter claims that he tried to book hotel rooms through Expedia for the 2018 Taste of Chicago, using Expedia’s booking affiliate EventBlocks.

Allegedly, EventBlocks and Expedia listed incorrect dates for the festival on their websites and led him to book rooms for those dates.

He says he later discovered that the festival was several days earlier than the website advertised, and that his rooms were non-refundable, making them virtually unusable to him.

The Expedia class action lawsuit claims that customers book rooms through the EventBlocks website by selecting the name of an event for which they want to book rooms, and they enter the number of rooms they need.

The website allegedly provides further information about the event, including dates and times. At this point, the website allegedly notifies consumers of what dates for which they should book rooms.

However, McCarter claims that the event dates and times provided by EventBlocks are often off.

The Expedia class action lawsuit says McCarter is not the only consumer to have experienced this problem. Allegedly, the problem is a “consistent problem,” and represents a deceptive business practice on the part of both EventBlocks and Expedia Inc.

According to the Expedia class action lawsuit, the site makes it a policy to not refund hotel reservations, and this policy is not changed, even when the website incorrectly lists events.

McCarter cites several examples in which the site allegedly listed events in Chicago incorrectly, some of which have stated dates that are allegedly more than a week off from the actual dates.

Consumers who booked rooms for incorrect dates based on information from EventBlocks then had to spend additional money to reserve another hotel room for the correct dates, according to the Expedia class action lawsuit. 

Events incorrectly listed allegedly included the Big Data in Finance Chicago event and the Old Town Art Fair as well as the Taste of Chicago 2018.

McCarter claims that many consumers were financially injured by the companies’ practice because they were not able to take advantage of the rooms for which they paid.

The Expedia wrong dates class action lawsuit claims that “in addition to imposing burdensome and unnecessary costs associated with canceling or changing reservations, [Expedia and EventBlocks’] practices render many consumers’ reservations useless and cause them to waste hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for lodging and travel accommodations.”

The Expedia nonrefundable booking class action lawsuit notes that EventBlocks began their partnership with Expedia in 2015 to expand promotions offered to consumers.

In the Expedia, EventBlocks class action lawsuit, McCarter seeks compensation for himself and all similarly affected consumers to remedy their financial injury.

He also seeks an injunction preventing the companies from continuing what he claims is a deceptive business practice.

McCarter is represented by Myles McGuire and Paul Geske of McGuire Law PC.

The Expedia EventBlocks Wrong Event Dates Class Action Lawsuit is McCarter v. EventBlocks Inc., et al., Case No. 2018-CH-09417, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.