booking websites over occupancy taxes are now left with a hefty litigation bill.
WASHINGTON (CN) The Supreme Court affirmed a more that $2 million court costs bill Thursday against municipalities that had accused Hotels.com and other travel booking agencies of shortchanging them on occupancy taxes.
San Antonio and more than 170 other Texas municipalities opened the lawsuit in 2006, saying their revenues were suffering because the likes of Hotels.com, Expedia and Priceline had been paying hotel-occupancy taxes based on wholesale rates that they struck with operators, rather than the full freight that end consumers paid.
Three years later, that lawsuit resulted in a $20.5 million jury verdict for the municipalities. By the time the final judgment was entered in 2016, additional penalties and interest brought the total award to $84.1 million.
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U.S. Supreme Court hears San Antonio s challenge to $2M court tab owed to online travel companies
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Attorneys for the city of San Antonio went before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday seeking to upend $2.2 million in court costs awarded to online travel booking companies. Those companies had prevailed in a lengthy legal battle over unpaid hotel occupancy taxes. The court is in Washington, D.C.Stefani Reynolds /Bloomberg
The city of San Antonio’s effort to wiggle out of a more than $2 million legal tab owed to online travel booking companies went before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Cities Fight for Court Discount After Tax War With Online Travel Giant courthousenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from courthousenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Clients line up outside the Mississippi Department of Employment Security WIN Job Center in Pearl, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
PHILADELPHIA (CN) An appellate panel appeared divided Tuesday on the government’s effort to deny pandemic-related assistance to low-income households who have already maxed out food stamps.
In Pennsylvania, where the case is underway, the effort would keep emergency funding off limits to some 40% of people who get SNAP benefits, short for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Department of Agriculture took the position last year when it was directed by Congress as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to provide states with extra money for low-income households in need of emergency assistance.