Hotels.com, L.p. Hotwire, Inc. Trip Network, Inc. (d/b/a Cheaptickets.com) Expedia, Inc. Internetwork Publishing…

Summary

The court reversed the circuit court’s liability, damages, penalties, and fee awards against online travel companies for hotel taxes accruing before 2019. It held that the pre-2019 statutes did not clearly include accommodations intermediaries as taxable entities and, after applying statutory-construction principles, did not cover the OTCs. The court also held that the OTCs’ intermediary services did not constitute renting, leasing, or furnishing rooms under the local tourism-tax statute.