Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Skiers filed a lawsuit against Vail Resorts and Alterra for artificially inflating daily lift prices.
- The lawsuit alleges anticompetitive practices forcing skiers into buying expensive season passes.
- Vail and Alterra deny the claims, citing their passes offer the best value available.
SALT LAKE CITY — The two largest ski resort owners in North America face a class-action lawsuit that claims the companies artificially inflated daily lift ticket prices to "coerce" skiers and snowboarders to buy expensive season passes.
Four skiers, three from Colorado and one from Massachusetts, claim in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Denver that Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company engage in anticompetitive practices that violate antitrust laws.
"For years, skiers have been told that soaring lift ticket prices, reduced choice, and overcrowding are simply the new reality," Greg Asciolla, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement, per Reuters. "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."
The rise of the mega pass
Vail Resorts fundamentally changed the ski industry when it introduced the Epic Pass in 2008. The multi-mountain season pass provides access to what are now 42 Vail-owned ski areas and another 30 it contracts with around the world. Alterra followed with its Ikon Pass in 2018, for 18 resorts it owns, plus another 70 it has deals with.
In Utah, the Epic Pass is good at Park City Mountain, while the Ikon Pass is good at Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Deer Valley and Snowbasin.
For the 2025-26 season, a full Epic Pass sold for $1,051, while a full Ikon Pass went for $1,329. Locals-only season passes run a little cheaper.
After introducing the multi-mountain passes, Vail and Alterra raised daily lift ticket prices sharply, exceeding $350 a day at top-tier ski resorts.
"But this is no accident, or the result of competitive market forces ... lift tickets for ski areas within the Epic and Ikon ecosystems are priced in a way to induce (or coerce) customers into buying the mega pass bundles," according to the lawsuit.
Why daily lift tickets cost so much
Speaking about the advent of the Epic Pass and the increase of daily lift ticket prices across the industry, Vail CEO Rob Katz told The Wall Street Journal that "this was an industrywide, ultimately global transformation that happened that our company absolutely led.
"And part of that was making the season pass the absolute best opportunity you could have and then make the lift ticket more expensive. If you're going to walk up to a ski resort and buy a lift ticket, you're not giving the ski resort any advance commitment."
The pass commits skiers and snowboarders to buy before the season starts, not knowing whether it will be a good snow year or not. It provides resort operators a reliable income stream regardless of the weather.
Vail Resorts, a publicly traded company, sells about 2 million Epic passes a year. The lawsuit estimates that privately held Alterra sells about 1 million Ikon passes annually.
The lawsuit contends that while the season passes generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the companies, they are not good deals for customers.
"Skiers and snowboarders are led to believe they are making a cost-conscious decision in buying the Epic or Ikon mega pass, but in reality, and as a result of Vail Resorts' and Alterra's respective anticompetitive schemes involving bundling, they are in fact being forced into buying a mega pass, which is itself maximally (over)-priced up to the point where it looks like a good deal when compared to the overpriced lift ticket. In short, both the lift ticket and the mega pass are overpriced," according to the complaint.
What the ski resort companies say about the lawsuit
Vail and Alterra say the claims in the lawsuit are without merit.
"We launched the Epic Pass in 2008 to make skiing and riding more accessible, reducing the price of a season pass by 60%," according to a Vail spokesperson, adding it's still one of the best values in the industry, especially following our further 20% price reduction in 2021.
"As we acquired smaller resorts over the years, we also launched new, lower-priced pass products, such as the Epic Day Pass Local and Limited, for guests who only want to ski close to home," to the spokesperson.
"We will always give the best value to our pass holders who commit ahead of the season —but that said, we have also been intentional to price our lift tickets, sold in season, on a resort-by-resort basis, including numerous new discount opportunities this past season."
Last month, Vail cut the price of an Epic Pass by 20% for people aged 13 to 30 to attract and retain Gen Z skiers and snowboarders.
An Alterra spokeswoman said the Ikon Pass "provides the best value" with its access to more than 70 ski areas.
"We believe these claims have no merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously," the spokeswoman said in a statement emailed to the Durango Herald. "It is disappointing that we are forced to defend this baseless claim and divert any attention away from operating our business and delivering incredible experiences."
The lawsuit contends high lift ticket prices for people who don't ski often and locals "who lose meaningful choice about where to go" because the season pass model "channels" them to only affiliated resorts.
Vail skier visits, season pass revenue down
Park City Mountain and its five ski areas in Colorado generate the largest share of the company's revenue, according to the company's second-quarter fiscal report, released March 9.
Vail had a net income of about $210 million, down from $244.4 million during the same period last year.
Season-to-date total skier visits were down 11.9% at Vail's North American ski areas compared to the prior year. A skier visit is counted each time a person uses a lift ticket or pass at a resort. Total lift revenue, including season pass revenue, was down 3.6%.
"This has been the most challenging winter across the Rockies that we have ever experienced with the lowest snowfall levels in more than 30 years for our Colorado and Utah resorts, combined with warmer temperatures, resulting in reduced terrain throughout the quarter and into February," Katz said in the report.
"Given that backdrop, we are pleased with the strength and stability shown by our operating model, as we reported only modest declines in lift revenue in what many would consider a worst-case weather scenario."
