Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, announced that it has been named interim lead counsel in a price-fixing class-action lawsuit brought against several online travel sites including Expedia, Inc.; Travelocity; Booking.com, as well as many of the hotel operators including Hilton Hotel; Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, a subsidiary of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and Marriott International, Inc. The suit originally filed August 20, 2012, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and later consolidated in the Northern District of Texas seeks to represent a class of hotel-room purchasers nationally, claiming that the online hotel retailers conspired with major hotel defendants to craft a secret agreement designed to thwart competition on hotel room prices, especially from smaller price-cutting online retailers. U.S. District Court Judge Jane J. Boyle announced that Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is best suited to lead the case after a highly competitive process in which nearly two dozen firms sought the lead-counsel position.

Booking.com B.V. announced that the latest release of its iPhone app has a new feature: Passbook. Passbook allows users to easily access their hotel and accommodation bookings, along with entry tickets, boarding passes and much more all in one place. Adding Passbook to the app builds upon the seamless multi-device experience Booking.com strives to deliver to its growing base of over 10 million iPhone and iPod touch users. The latest version of the Booking.com iPhone app was released and can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store. Passbook: Customers can now add their booking confirmations to Passbook. Because Passbook is both time and location aware, confirmations and tickets show up on the customers' iPhone Lock Screen when and where needed. A user only needs to swipe to access them. Passbook is one of the newest features available in Apple's recently released iOS 6 operating system. Booking.com has recently added a lot of new functionalities to the app that help customers once the booking is done: Booking modifications can easily be done by clicking on the button which automatically connects to Booking.com's customer service available in 41 languages; Customers will receive a push notification just before their stay to have easy access to their booking confirmation; Once the guest has arrived, they don't need an internet connection to see everything they need: the accommodation address, phone number and all other booking information is easily accessible on their mobile device; When connected to the Internet, guests can easily use the integrated route planner upon their arrival to find their way the easy way; Upon check-in, guests can just show their Passbook or digital confirmation to facilitate a simple paperless check-in. iPhone, iPod touch, Passbook and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. More information about Booking.com's iPhone app can be found here.

Finnair Oyj and Booking.com B.V. signed a one-year agreement for hotel and accommodation reservation services. The partnership enables Finnair customers who book their trips through the Finnair website to take advantage of improved hotel search features and access Booking.com’s offering of more than 240,000 properties in 173 countries, with 15 million reviews from real guests. Accommodation searches powered by Booking.com are seamlessly integrated into the Finnair online experience.