Expedia 2011 Annual Report Download - page 29

Part I. Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Part I. Item 2. Properties
We lease approximately 1.4 million square feet of office space worldwide, pursuant to leases with
expiration dates through July 2021.
We lease approximately 443,000 square feet for our headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, pursuant to
leases with expiration dates through October 2018. We also lease approximately 376,000 square feet of office
space for our domestic operations in various cities and locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho,
Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington DC, pursuant to leases with
expiration dates through November 2015.
We also lease approximately 583,000 square feet of office space for our international operations in various
cities and locations, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France,
Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore,
South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom,
pursuant to leases with expiration dates through July 2021.
Part I. Item 3. Legal Proceedings
In the ordinary course of business, Expedia and its subsidiaries are parties to legal proceedings and claims
involving property, personal injury, contract, alleged infringement of third-party intellectual property rights and
other claims. The amounts that may be recovered in such matters may be subject to insurance coverage.
Rules of the SEC require the description of material pending legal proceedings, other than ordinary, routine
litigation incident to the registrant’s business, and advise that proceedings ordinarily need not be described if
they primarily involve damages claims for amounts (exclusive of interest and costs) not individually exceeding
10% of the current assets of the registrant and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis. In the judgment of
management, none of the pending litigation matters that the Company and its subsidiaries are defending,
including those described below, involves or is likely to involve amounts of that magnitude. The litigation
matters described below involve issues or claims that may be of particular interest to our stockholders, regardless
of whether any of these matters may be material to our financial position or results of operations based upon the
standard set forth in the SEC’s rules.
Class Action Litigation
Consumer Case against Expedia, Hotels.com and Hotwire. On December 8, 2008, a putative class action
was filed in federal court in New York State against Expedia, Hotels.com and Hotwire. Similar lawsuits were
filed at or about the same time against Priceline and Travelocity. See Matthew R. Chiste, et al. v. Hotels.com,
L.P., et al., No. 08 CV 10676 (United States District Court for the Southern District of New York). The
complaint alleges that the defendants are improperly charging and/or failing to pay hotel occupancy taxes and
engaging in other deceptive practices in charging customers for taxes and fees. The complaint seeks certification
of a nationwide class of all persons who booked a hotel room in New York City through the defendants. The
complaint asserts claims for deceptive business practices, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of
contract and seeks a declaratory judgment, injunctive relief and damages in an unspecified amount, but
exceeding $5 million. On November 15, 2010, defendants’ motion to dismiss was granted in part and the bulk of
the plaintiff’s claims were dismissed. Expedia filed a Motion for Reconsideration seeking to have the remainder
of the case dismissed, which was denied.
Consumer Case against Expedia Canada. On June 26, 2009, a class action suit against Expedia Canada
Corporation was filed in Ontario, Canada, alleging that disclosures related to “taxes and service fees” were
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