Major airlines sued over alleged price-fixing using shared data platforms

Airline class action lawsuits overview:

• Who: Two groups of consumers filed separate class action lawsuits against Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO), its subsidiary 3Victors Inc. and several major airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue Airways and United Airlines.
• Why: Both lawsuits allege the companies coordinated domestic airfares by sharing confidential data via the ATPCO and 3Victors platforms.
• Where: The airline class action lawsuits were filed in Virginia and Washington federal courts.

Several major U.S. airlines were hit with two separate class action lawsuits alleging they used a shared data platform to monitor competitors’ pricing and discourage lower fares. 

The airline antitrust lawsuits accuse ATPCO and its subsidiary 3Victors of operating a system through which airlines contributed confidential flight-shopping information in exchange for access to competitors’ data.

The plaintiffs claim the arrangement reduced competition and helped airlines maintain artificially high domestic airfares. According to the complaints, “ATPCO is owned by a group of [international] airlines that, on information and belief, includes defendants American, Delta and United.”

The first airline class action lawsuit was filed on Nov. 3 by plaintiff Clinton Brown and three others in Virginia federal court. It names ATPCO, 3Victors, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue as defendants.

The second lawsuit, filed on Nov. 4 by plaintiffs Ashley Ward and Gregory Morris in Washington federal court, includes the same defendants in addition to United Airlines and Hawaiian Holdings — named separately from its parent company, Alaskan Airlines.

Pricing-data tools discouraged fare discounts, airline antitrust lawsuits claim

The airline class action lawsuits focus on Iris, a shared repository that collects airline shopping data, and PriceEye, a tool that provides competitive pricing information. 

The complaints allege these platforms allow airlines to identify competitors’ fare reductions and respond quickly, making discounting less attractive.

The plaintiffs allege that ATPCO built infrastructure to pull airlines’ dynamically generated prices into a shared information exchange. Ward and Morris trace these efforts back to a 2016 internal working group, noting that ATPCO later launched a shared cloud environment for collective shopping insights in July 2023 before acquiring 3Victors later that year.

Ward and Morris seek to represent separate purchaser classes. One covers individuals who purchased domestic airline tickets from Southwest, Alaska or JetBlue within the past four years, while another covers those who purchased domestic tickets from United during the same period.

Meanwhile, Brown wants to represent a class that purchased domestic airline tickets from one or more of the five named airline defendants beginning Nov. 1, 2022.

Both airline class action lawsuits assert violations of the Sherman Act, which prohibits agreements that unreasonably restrain trade. The plaintiffs seek class certification, damages and injunctive relief to stop the alleged coordination and exchange of confidential pricing information.

What do you think about the allegations in this airline antitrust lawsuit? Let us know in the comments.

Brown and three other plaintiffs are represented by Elizabeth K. Tripodi, Eduard Korsinsky and Ellen T. Noteware of Levi & Korsinsky LLP. Ward and Morris are represented by Steve W. Berman, Theodore Wojcik, Samuel E. Kurland and Rio S. Pierce of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The airline class action lawsuits are Brown, et al. v. Airline Tariff Publishing Company, et al., Case No. 1:26-cv-03646, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Ward, et al. v. Airline Tariff Publishing Company, et al., Case No. 2:26-cv-04289, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

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