The twin titans of the American ski industry, Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company, are facing a class action antitrust lawsuit alleging that their “mega passes” constitute an anti-competitive “scheme” that drives up the cost of skiing and snowboarding.
Vail’s Epic Pass and Alterra’s Ikon Pass dominate the American ski market. The complaint alleges they steer skiers and riders into expensive season-pass “bundles” by setting daily lift tickets at exorbitant levels. The case was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver on behalf of four individuals, three of them Colorado residents, seeking damages for them and others affected by Epic and Ikon pricing across the U.S.
“For years, skiers have been told that soaring lift ticket prices, reduced choice, and overcrowding are simply the new reality,” attorney Greg Asciolla of the DiCello Levitt law firm, which filed the suit, said in a statement. “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.”
Broomfield-based Vail Resorts and Denver-based Alterra both called the suit “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%,” the Vail Resorts statement said. “We’re proud that 18 years later, itap 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.”
Alterra’s statement the company would defend itself “vigorously.”
“The Ikon Pass provides the best value to access more than 70 premier mountain destinations around the world, and each of our North American resorts sells its own suite of lift ticket access products at various price points designed to meet the needs of our guests,” Alterra’s statement said. “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 suit alleges the companies deliberately raised ticket-window prices over the years to exorbitant levels in an effort to push consumers into buying their season passes at earlybird prices in the spring for the subsequent season. Vail Resorts chief executive Rob Katz has made statements this year suggesting the company is rethinking its lift ticket pricing. Katz returned to the company a year ago, having previously served as CEO from 2006 to 2021.
“We will always give the best value to our pass holders who commit ahead of the season,” the Vail Resorts statement said, “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.”
The lawsuit says Epic and Ikon pass prices have rapidly risen at a pace well beyond the inflation rate. Although the Ikon Pass is consistently priced higher than the equivalent Epic Pass, the complaint says Ikon accounts for 54.8% of the mega pass market vs. 38.7% for Epic. The earlybird price for the Epic Pass rose from $793 in 2021-22 to $1,089 for 2026-27, according to the complaint, while the Ikon Pass increased from $999 to $1,399 over that period.
“Yet the sale of the Epic Pass and Ikon Pass have become the primary source of lift revenues and resort visitation for Vail Resorts and Alterra over the years,” according to the complaint. “For example, for Fiscal Year 2025, Vail Resorts’ various Epic Passes provided 65% of lift revenue and 75% of lift visitations. As a result, Vail Resorts and Alterra make every effort to drive more and more people to purchase their respective Mega Passes. But in order to do so, they each have resorted to an anticompetitive scheme that, as alleged herein, violates the antitrust laws.”
