SEATTLE: Consumers today filed a class-action lawsuit against several online travel sites including Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), Travelocity, Booking.com, a subsidiary of Priceline.com (NASDAQ: PCLN), and the nation’s largest hotel operators including Hilton Hotel (NYSE: HLT), Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, a subsidiary of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (NYSE:HOT), and Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR), claiming the two groups conspired to use their market dominance to fix prices on hotel rooms across the country.

The lawsuit, filed August 20, 2012, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of hotel-room purchasers nationally, alleges that the online hotel retailers conspired with major hotel defendants to secretly create and enforce Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) agreements to thwart competition on hotel room prices, especially from price-cutting online retailers.