New York, New York — A new antitrust lawsuit has an ambitious goal: to give financial compensation to Epic and Ikon passholders, and break up America’s two largest ski resort conglomerates.
Yesterday, DiCello Levitt, Berger Montague PC, and Salahi PC announced that they have filed a federal class action lawsuit against Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, features plaintiffs who paid for an Epic Pass, an Ikon Pass, or other pass offerings from Vail or Alterra. With this being a class action lawsuit, they’re aiming to get people who bought a pass on or after March 23, 2022, to join.
The lawsuit alleges that Alterra and Vail are pushing users to buy their season passes by raising lift ticket prices at an exponential rate. The lawsuit alleges that the two companies have been “restraining competition, foreclosing independent ski areas, and forcing consumers to pay supracompetitive prices.”
A key point of the accusation is that Vail or Alterra either owns or has an affiliation with a vast majority of destination ski resorts. As a chart demosntrated in the lawsuit shows, there are only two “Extra-Large” ski resorts that don’t have an affiliation with Epic or Ikon: Sugar Bowl and Whitefish. The rest are either owned/operated by them, or partner on a multi-mountain pass. By creating their megapass system, they’ve put pressure on the remaining major mountains to either join one of the two passes or face being left behind.
“For years, skiers have been told that soaring lift‑ticket prices, reduced choice, and overcrowding are simply the new reality. Our complaint alleges that these outcomes are not the result of healthy competition, but of exclusionary conduct by two companies that dominate access to the most desirable destinations,” said Partner Greg Asciolla, the Chair of DiCello Levitt’s Antitrust and Competition Litigation Practice.
The lawsuit seeks damages for patrons who purchased the passes and to restore competition in the ski industry. The class action lawsuit also seeks to attract more people who feel wronged by the system.
The case will be known as Goloja et al. v. Vail Resorts, Inc. et al. You can read the 74-page complaint here.
Thoughts
As for how successful this will be, it’s tough to say. These are big-time law firms, so this is a serious matter. However, I don’t necessarily agree with their viewpoint (or the general argument among skiers) that the U.S. ski industry is a duopoly. According to the Storm Skiing Journal, Alterra and Vail only own/operate slightly over 14% of ski areas/resorts in the U.S. There are other notable passes out there, like Indy and Mountain Collective, so I disagree with their claim that it’s the only game in town.
I don’t necessarily agree with the claim that Vail and Alterra have led to independent resort closures, as the number of lift-served operations has remained relatively stagnant in recent years, and we’ve actually seen a few ski areas recently pop up around the country.
I guess the key argument will be whether the practice of buying an expensive (or cheap, depending on how much usage you get out of it) season pass to avoid paying a large amount for a lift ticket is illegal. They’re claiming it is due to violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Colorado Antitrust Act of 2023.
Recent antitrust efforts have seen some success, with Google recently facing a legal loss, and we’re currently seeing Live Nation go through the wringer. A big breakup hasn’t been seen recently, which is why this lawsuit could see challenges.
