A lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court alleges online travel companies illegally avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in state taxes to Nevada, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Priceline, Orbitz, Trip Advisor, Expedia and Hotels.com are among the companies listed in the suit.
The lawsuit, which was filed by communication consultants Sig Rogich and Mark Fierro, says the companies paid state taxes based on the discounted wholesale prices they paid for hotel rooms, not the higher retail price customers paid for the room.
Nevada gets hundreds of millions of dollars a year in room taxes that pay for a number of local and state agencies, including schools.
The lawsuit was filed in April under the Nevada False Claims Act but was sealed until this week.
Rogich and Fierro are seeking damages on behalf of the state. They say the money from the companies could help offset some of the devastating losses from the coronavirus pandemic.