Travel booking app Hopper has agreed to pay $35 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission allegations that it charged users hidden fees and misrepresented the costs and benefits of several services. The money will be used to compensate affected consumers.
The settlement also prohibits Hopper from misleading customers about prices, fees or optional services. The company must clearly disclose the total cost of a booking before asking users to complete the transaction.
The FTC alleged that Hopper used interface designs that made optional charges difficult to notice or remove. These included Tip and VIP Support fees that were sometimes pre-selected and displayed below information visible on the main booking screen.
FTC Challenges VIP Support and Price Freeze Claims
According to the FTC’s official announcement, VIP Support fees ranged from $10 to $42 for flights, $9 to $25 for hotels and $9 for car rentals. Some customers who paid for the service allegedly received limited access to support or found that their requests were not handled as expected.
The regulator also challenged Hopper’s Price Freeze and Hold the Room products. Hopper promoted the services as allowing travellers to preserve a booking price for a set period, but the FTC alleged that important restrictions were not presented clearly.
A frozen price only applied up to a defined limit and depended on the original booking remaining available. Customers could therefore pay for Price Freeze and later find that they could not book the same itinerary at the expected rate.
The complaint said these practices violated federal consumer protection law by charging some customers without informed consent and obscuring the final price. The proposed court order requires Hopper to obtain clear consent before adding optional products and to display charges prominently.
Hopper Says the Practices Are Outdated
Hopper told TechCrunch that it settled to avoid years of litigation over practices that no longer affect its current business. The company said most of the disputed interface designs were introduced during the pandemic and discontinued by mid-2023.
A spokesperson said the payment did not reflect the strength of the FTC’s allegations. Hopper maintained that the settlement allowed it to focus on current customers and business partners.
The travel app launched in 2014 and uses algorithms to predict changes in flight and hotel prices. It surpassed 120 million lifetime downloads worldwide in 2024.
Featured image credits: Vecteezy
For more stories like it, click the +Follow button at the top of this page to follow us.