New Lawsuit Accuses Vail, Alterra, and Other Resort Companies of Price Fixing
A new class-action lawsuit seeking compensation for skiers alleges that a group of major North American ski industry players, including Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company, colluded to increase and fix the prices of lift tickets and season passes, stifling competition.
The antitrust claims, which amount to an “overarching conspiracy,” according to the lawsuit, haven’t been tested in court.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Colorado last week by three skiers, also named two smaller resort companies—Boyne Resorts and Powdr—as defendants, along with the research firm RRC Associates and the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA).
A spokesperson for the NSAA, a nonprofit trade association that represents ski areas, told POWDER via email that the organization is aware of the lawsuit and reviewing the allegations, but doesn’t have a comment at this time. A spokesperson for Vail said the company has no comment. The other groups didn’t respond to a request for comment sent late last week.
The alleged anticompetitive behavior described in the lawsuit has “worked as intended,” with lift ticket and season pass prices increasing substantially without “proper regard for ordinary market forces,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit says that peak day-of ticket prices at the defendants’ flagship ski resorts have increased more than 55% since the 2019-20 season, while Alterra’s Ikon Pass has climbed more than 45%. Since Vail’s post-pandemic pricing reset in the 2021-22 ski season, it has increased its starting Epic Pass prices by just under 40%.
Boyne and Powdr both provide Ikon Pass access to their ski resorts.
Photo: Brad McGinley Photography/Getty Images
The lawsuit alleged the “scheme” was enabled by the resort defendants’ “anticompetitive acquisitions,” describing a rapid series of mountain purchases and deals starting in the 2010s led by Vail and Alterra.
Now, according to the lawsuit, the four resort companies own or control access to the “vast majority” of “Destination” resorts.
In the 84-page text, those “Destination” resorts are defined as the larger and better-known resorts, like Breckenridge in Colorado, Stevens Pass in Washington, and Mammoth in California.
The control of those resorts set “the stage for Defendants … to work together in earnest to charge supracompetitive prices for Destination Ski Packages,” the lawsuit reads.
“Destination Ski Packages,” per the lawsuit, refers to the product bundles resorts sell in connection with stays, like multi-resort passes, lift tickets, rentals, and lessons.
The complaint alleges the resort defendants shared confidential revenue, cost, capacity, and supply data with RRC Associates, which, according to its website, offers “market research and analysis” to ski resort and tourism groups.
“RRC used this non-public, resort-level information to prepare and circulate comprehensive reports to NSAA members like Resort Defendants that informed the business decisions and strategies they implemented for the upcoming ski season,” the lawsuit alleges.
Through private consulting relationships between RRC and individual resort companies, defendants also used the information to set passes, tickets, and other ski products at “artificially high levels,” allowing them to “avoid meaningfully competing with each other,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit cited other instances of alleged evidence, including senior leaders of the resort defendants discussing sensitive business subjects at NSAA annual conventions between 2019 and 2026.
It alleged, too, that Alterra, Boyne, and Powdr’s shared use of Aspenware, a firm co-owned by Alterra that provides an e-commerce platform for ski resorts, made their information exchange “even more efficient and effective.”
The lawsuit follows another separate antitrust lawsuit brought against Vail and Alterra earlier this year. The resort companies were not accused of conspiring together in that case, and they said they believe the claims have no merit. Their bid to dismiss the case is pending, Reuters reported.
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