Langham To Pay $320,000 In Price Gouging Lawsuit

CALIFORNIA—On Monday, July 13, 2026, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that Langham Hotels Pacific Corporation will pay $320,000 to settle a consumer protection civil lawsuit brought by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office alleging the company price gouged wildfire victims and other guests who stayed at its Pasadena hotel during the January 2025 wildfires and resulting state of emergency.

On January 7, 2025, the day multiple wildfires broke out in Southern California, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a Proclamation of a State of Emergency for Los Angeles and Ventura counties. This proclamation triggered California’s price gouging protections under California Penal Code section 396, which were extended through July 1, 2025. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also passed a series of motions extending price gouging protections for hotel guests in Los Angeles County from January 7, 2025, to March 29, 2026.

Langham’s Pasadena hotel, Langham Huntington Pasadena, offered 379 hotel rooms, 26 suites and eight cottages for rent in Pasadena through its website and third-party websites.

The lawsuit alleged that Langham violated California’s anti-price gouging law, and the state’s unfair competition law, by charging its Pasadena hotel guests more than 10 percent above the hotel’s regular rates as advertised immediately prior to the proclamation or declaration of emergency.

Under the judgment, Langham will pay $300,000 in civil penalties and $20,000 in investigative costs to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office.

Langham must pay restitution and issue refunds to eligible hotel guests who stayed at its Pasadena hotel between January 7, 2025, and March 29, 2026, for all amounts paid above the maximum allowable hotel rate. The parties have calculated the total refund amount due to hotel guests at $216,795 between January and April 2025 alone.

They must pay the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs any refund amounts that remain undeliverable after reasonable efforts to locate and refund all eligible hotel guests. Langham must modify any automated, algorithmic or other pricing systems to ensure prices are not unlawfully increased during a declared state of emergency. Langham cooperated with the investigation and did not admit liability.